Pheremones
by Mione of Ravenclaw
Summary: Maura has something that Jane wants. Rizzles, of course.
1. Maura's Hypothesis

**A/N-If you're subscribed to me you're probably surprised that this isn't an HP fic. If you haven't seen Rizzoli and Isles though, you should. That show is seriously the femslashy gift that just keeps on giving. Anyway, this fic is inspired by some twitters between Jane and Maura about Maura stealing Jane's shoes and borrowing Jane's shirt and refusing to give them back. Seriously, the twitters between these two are so femslashy that they sometimes cease to be subtext (check out some of the recent ones and you'll see what I mean). :)**

**I don't own Jane and Maura or any of those other guys on the show...**

"Are you for real right now?" Jane asked as she eyed her shoes, the ones that Maura had just slipped onto her feet after managing to steal them from Jane.

"If by for real, you mean to ask am I being honest, then I think you know the answer," Maura said, her head tilted to the side and the corner of her lip turned up. "I have every intention of keeping these shoes for an extended period of time."

Jane slouched so that her head was resting on the table and groaned. She was sitting in a Boston bar completely barefoot, with no immediate access to her shoes. It wasn't the very first time that such a thing had happened, but she needed about ten more beers to get to the state she'd been the last time she lost her shoes in a bar.

"Please Maura," Jane whined. "I already let you borrow my shirt. I can't just walk around a bar barefoot."

Maura took the pair of obscenely expensive heels she'd been sporting and put the on the table. She slid them across to Jane and smiled innocently. "Wear mine."

"No, Maura," Jane insisted. When Maura lowered her eyes and gave the kicked puppy dog look that she gave so well, Jane added. "No, I can't. Not with this outfit, I'm a cop for Christ's sake, those shoes are worth as much as I make in a week."

Maura, however, persisted until Jane couldn't take it anymore. "Fine," she muttered. "Just so you can see how ridiculous I look in your Jimmy's or Joey's or whatever the hell they are."

Maura beamed at her friend as Jane snatched the light purple shoes and put them on her feet. They were actually a tiny bit loose on her, about a half size too big. Jane spun around for Maura's benefit, then sat quickly back down and took the heels off.

"See. Ridiculous," Jane said as she put the shoes back on the table and slid them across to Maura. "Now give me my shoes back."

In the few seconds wearing the Jimmy Choos, Jane had hardly carried herself any differently than she usually did in her comfy, albeit unfashionable shoes. Yet Maura caught a fascinating glimmer of a Jane Rizzoli she rarely got to see. It wasn't just that Jane looked stunning in the shoes, even though she did. It was that she looked so incredibly uncomfortable and insecure, but was still doing the thing that brought out those feelings. She had done it for no other reason than to make Maura happy.

When Maura realized that Jane was staring at her waiting for a response, she looked up and nodded.

"They look fantastic on you," Maura said, then added without thinking. "They make your legs look fabulous."

"Thanks, I guess," Jane said as she raised her eyebrows and leaned back for another sip of her beer.

Now that's interesting, Maura thought. Maura realized she rarely ever said things that she had not completely processed first to assure it was an appropriate response. Such impulsive speech and lack of inhibition could be a result of the beer, though she had only had a negligible quantity, so scratch that. It could also be the result of a sudden redistribution of blood, but that would be accompanied by other symptoms, so that could be ruled out for now.

Before Maura could finish her self-diagnosis, Jane snapped her fingers in front of Maura's face a few times to get her attention. Maura look at Jane quizzically, uncertain of why she was so impatient.

"Shoes? Anytime now," Jane said, tapping her finger impatiently on the table. "I am not going barefoot in here no matter how clean the nuts are."

Maura's face shift from confused to annoyed that her train of thought had been interrupted by Jane's dogged pursuit of her shoes.

"You have shoes, Jane," Maura said as she pushed the heels back across the table. "Very nice, very expensive shoes. Besides, these match my shirt."

"Gahh! It's because you are wearing my shirt Maura," Jane said as she gestured to the softball tshirt that Jane had lent Maura after Maura's clothes got soaked through on a work errand.

Jane blinked and looked up quickly from where her eye had settled conveniently on Maura's chest for a second longer than was at all necessary or appropriate.

"It looks great though," Jane said quickly, simply to fill up the silence that had fallen over them.

Hmm fascinating, Dr. Isles thought as she smiled noncommittally at Jane. The other woman appeared to be having similar reactions to her own moments before. Though impulsive speech was more routine for Jane than Maura, this particular statement seemed rather out of the ordinary. There was also the loss of concentration or focus at unusual moments in conversation.

There existed the possibility that they both had a tumor or brain disorder that affected them in similar ways. The probability of that happening was staggeringly low though, so it would go on the list, but Maura needed some more feasible possibilities. What else causes erratic changes in behavior towards another person? The answer was so obvious and so unexpected that she nearly gasped out loud when it popped into her head.

_Pheremones_. Or sexual pheromones if she were to be more precise, and that was always Maura Isles' aim, even in special circumstances like this one. It was a fascinating hypothesis that Maura would just have to test out. For no other reason than to rule it out, of course.

"You want your shoes back?" Maura asked.

"No Maura. I'd rather break both of my ankles walking around in your heels," Jane said with that trademark sarcasm that even Maura could pick up. "Yes, of course I want my shoes back."

"Come and get them then," Maura said as she removed the sensible, well worn shoes and held them out in front of her.

She hoped she wasn't being too obvious in her efforts to initiate physical contact with Jane. It didn't appear that Jane picked up on Maura's flirtation though. Without hesitation, Jane had launched herself across the table to grab at the toe of the shoe. Maura simply shifted so she was out of Jane's reach.

"Don't think I won't come over there," Jane said as she smiled and got up from her seat and tiptoes over the damp floor to the other side of their table.

"I was counting on it," Maura said playfully as she quickly moved away from Jane, forcing the detective to crawl into the seat next to Maura. They were now very close as Jane tried to wrestle the shoes away from Maura. Jane finally got them, as Maura lost her focus when Jane came closer than she had anticipated.

"Yes! I win," Jane said loud enough to cause any patrons that weren't already staring at the spectacle to turn around to look.

Jane looked around and blushed. It was hard to get her to do that, but Maura found it adorable and sweet. She was so caught up in Jane's adorable blush that it took a few seconds to see that Jane, for some reason, remained impossibly close. Maura suddenly found herself tempted to enjoy the very nice view she had down Jane's shirt.

Jane cleared her throat but didn't move.

"Um, that's a nice, um perfume you have," Jane said as she looked down at Maura. She blushed again and locked eyes with Maura, a nervous smile pulling at the corner of her lips.

Alright, this experiment was going _too_ well for Maura. Not only were both of their pheromone levels clearly elevated, but she was now experiencing a combination of symptoms she could only associate with arousal. If Maura wasn't mistaken, Jane's pupils and facial muscles indicated similar levels of arousal.

Though she was in no rush to move away from Jane, Maura could see the bartender over Jane's shoulder. He was still looking over at them with what Maura could only identify as a generally unpleasant gaze. Maura had a hard time understanding exactly what had the man miffed, but it appeared to have something to do with their presence.

"Um, Jane?" Maura said, surprised that her voice came out so softly. She nodded in the direction of the bartender.

Jane threw the man her best 'don't screw with me' glare and he promptly became very interested in cleaning the bar. Jane moved away from Maura, but remained sitting next to her.

"Guy has some kind of staring problem," she muttered. "It's like he's never seen a barefoot detective trying to get her shoes from an M.E. with a wine glass of beer."

Maura laughed as she reached across the table to grab her shoes and proceeded to put them on. The two of them probably did look absolutely absurd and out of the ordinary, when Maura really processed the visual Jane gave her.

"Well, I think that kind of scenario is actually rather uncommon," Maura said as she fixed her left shoe strap. "I could so some research on documented cases, but—

"Yeah, Maura, I get that," Jane said with one of those looks that are simultaneously frustrated and amused, the kind of reaction that only Maura could get from the detective. "Let's get out of here."

Jane shot the bartender another dirty look for good measure and led Maura out of the bar.

"Where are we going?" Maura asked as the both climbed into Jane's car.

"My place. That bartender was pissing me off," Jane said as she shifted the car into drive and pulled out onto the street.

Jane's apartment was only a few blocks from the bar, so they arrived at the building with minimal honking and only moderate swearing from Jane as she made her way through the narrow streets of Boston.

When they got into Jane's apartment, she tossed her keys on the counter and headed straight for the refrigerator while mumbling something about 'a bunch fucking of massholes.'

While Maura found Jane's insistence on swearing in entirely unnecessary situations comical and a bit endearing, she still felt a compulsion to remind her friend that such behavior wasn't exactly polite and might be misconstrued by others.

"Jane, language," Maura admonished halfheartedly. When Jane looked ready to argue, Maura simply held up her hands. "I don't mind. I'm simply concerned that others might get the wrong idea about you."

"What kind of wrong idea?" Jane asked, not at all defensive, as Maura had anticipated, but more, what _was_ that? Could it be flirty? Suggestive?

Maura had not anticipated that possible outcome to her experiment. Jane had drank almost a whole glass of wine in the short time they'd been in the kitchen, but that in addition to the one beer at the bar wasn't usually enough to get the detective drunk. That would be the only possible reason for Jane to be so bold, because that's what Jane's tone was; it was bold.

"What are you looking for there doc? Trying to diagnose me now?" Jane asked as she went to the refrigerator to get another beer.

"I'm not diagnosing you," Maura said as she finished off her wine and took the beer bottle Jane had just offered. "I was determining the appropriate response. There's a difference."

Jane looked as Maura with that 'you're so adorably naive' look that Maura disliked from anyone but Jane, because she knew Jane wasn't doing it to be patronizing. They looked at each for about a second longer than Maura suspected was socially appropriate in the situation, but Jane either didn't mind or didn't care. Then, as if a firecracker had gone off, Jane snapped out of it and felt in her pocket for her phone and looked at the time.

"Shit," Jane muttered under her breath. "I've got softball tonight."

"It's alright, Jane," Maura said placing a hand on Jane's arm. If she were to have any success at her experiment, she needed to maintain control of the flirting, or whatever it was that was going on here. "We still have _plenty_ of time," Maura said, surprising even herself with how forward she sounded.

Jane looked up from her phone at Maura. She gaped for a second before quickly recovering her composure.

"I'm just going to be needing that shirt back," Jane said as she smiled and took a small step closer, eying the softball jersey that Maura wore so well.

If Maura wasn't mistaken, Jane's gaze stayed on her chest for longer than was strictly necessary, and her facial muscles and pupils were again showing high levels of arousal. Maura felt an unusual level of excitement at the prospect of Jane flirting with her. The feeling both thrilled her and caught her off guard.

"I, I don't have any dry clothes here," Maura offered weakly before taking a sizeable gulp of her wine. "Besides, I like this shirt. It's not efficient for softball, but it's very effective for relaxation purposes."

"Please?" Jane said as she batted her eyelashes whenever Maura was reluctant to provide a piece of information during autopsy. "Your clothes is probably dried by now anyway."

Maura smiled at Jane, enjoying the fact that she had something Jane couldn't get, something that Jane wanted _badly_. She put on her best naively hurt face, and though she was a terrible actor, Jane didn't say anything.

"But I really like it," Maura said, doing her best to sound pitiful.

"What can I give you to get it back?" Jane asked after she finished and put down her empty wine glass. She took another step towards Maura.

Now Maura was horrible at reading people, but she thought Jane should have been acting a lot more frustrated, and a lot less, well, suggestive.

"Dinner?" Maura offered, smiling and shrugging her shoulders. She had clearly let herself drift way, way out of her comfort zone. Maura could flirt as good as anyone, but this wasn't flirting, this was seduction. "Where would you take me?"

"I'm guessing, since you have what I want, the right answer would be anywhere you want," Jane said stopping a few inches from Maura. When Maura did not immediately fill the silence, Jane flashed that confident grin of hers. God, she has a beautiful smile and nearly perfect bone structure, Maura thought.

"You know, if you don't agree to dinner," Jane said, taking the collar of the shirt between her fingers, "I have other ways of getting this shirt off you."

Maura swallowed hard, but she didn't dare take her eyes off of Jane. She was sure her facial muscles and eyes must be reacting wildly to Jane's apparent advances, but she could not have cared less.

In that moment, Maura determined that her hypothesis was correct. Dr. Maura Isles was intensely attracted to and incredibly aroused by Detective Jane Rizzoli.

**A/N- Should I continue? If I do, it probs won't be smutty just yet. :)**

**Reviews make my ocipital spatulas orbit like crazy. Pleeease send some reviews my way!**


	2. Topless Talking Google

**A/N-As you can see, your reviews have convinced me to extend the fic. Now, back to the Rizzles goodness...**

**I don't own R&I. If I did, there would have been more than handholding in last night's episode (even if it was still delisiously femslashy).**

"_You know, if you don't agree to dinner," Jane said, taking the collar of the shirt between her fingers, "I have other ways of getting this shirt off you."_

_Maura swallowed hard, but she didn't dare take her eyes off of Jane. She was sure her facial muscles and eyes must be reacting wildly to Jane's apparent advances, but she could not have cared less. _

_In that moment, Maura determined that her hypothesis was correct. Dr. Maura Isles was intensely attracted to and incredibly aroused by Detective Jane Rizzoli._

"Tuna," Maura said as she looked back and forth from Jane's fingers on her shirt.

"What?" Jane said, loosening her grip on the t shirt. She so badly wanted to take that shirt off of Maura, and not just so she could wear it to the softball game, but she was caught off guard by Maura's odd word choice when they were about a second from kissing.

"Tuna would be my meal of choice," Maura said, as she took a tiny step backwards so that the fabric slipped out of Jane's hands. "And another shirt that is similarly efficient for relaxation purposes."

Jane sighed and raised her eyebrows at Maura. Jane was aware that Maura had some issues with understanding human interaction, but surely she wasn't an idiot. She must have realized that she started this. Jane never would have dared to be so bold if Maura hadn't been so damn flirty in the bar. Well, it was that and drinking on an empty stomach that had made Jane so ballsy, but mostly it had been Maura's flirting.

"What?" Maura said, as if completely oblivious to the fact that she had killed the mood by talking about fishy cat food. "I was simply articulating my demands, and I think they are quite reasonable."

"Really, Maura, you're actually serious?" Jane said as she folded her arms across her chest and leaned against the counter.

"Yes, I am," Maura said as she tilted her head to the side and squinted in the way that she usually did when trying to understand why it was that Jane was asking such an obvious question.

"Of course you are," Jane said as she rolled her eyes and suppressed a grin despite her annoyance at Maura's insistence on being such a goddamn tease all the goddamn time. She was just so _Maura_. "Fine, you'll get your tuna tomorrow for lunch and I'll go get you a shirt. I should have an academy shirt that you can have."

"That will be an acceptable trade, so long as there are no holes in the replacement," Maura said.

If Jane didn't know any better she would think that a smile was playing on the corner of Maura's lips. God, was she enjoying this, whatever the hell this game was? Whatever they had going on was confusing as hell for Jane, but Maura was a lot smarter. Maybe the good doctor had things all figured out and was just waiting for Jane to catch on.

"Fine, I'll be right back," Jane muttered as she left the kitchen and made her way to her bedroom.

Just moments earlier, she had been giddy. Yes, Detective Jane Rizzoli had been downright giddy at the prospect of flirting so boldly with her friend. Jane could not pinpoint when it was that she became so enamored by Maura Isles, but the bar flirting had sealed the deal and made Jane brave enough to pursue her friend. Now she just felt an intense desire to get laid.

Jane finally found her old academy shirts at the bottom of the drawer, but both of them had small holes in them. She grabbed the two of them, hoping that two holey shirts might count as one hole-less shirt in Maura's calculations.

"Alright, so I have two of them that you can have," Jane said as she walked out of her room. "They both have tiny holes but—

Jane stopped in her tracks and swallowed hard when she saw what Maura was wearing, or rather what Maura _wasn't _wearing. She had taken the softball jersey off to expose an elegant lace bra that Jane suspected cost more than an outfit she wore to work on any given day. The bra wasn't Jane's focus though.

Like in the lesbian bar, Jane was almost literally face to face with Maura's perfect, perky breasts. Except on that occasion, she had been able to explain staring at Maura's chest later as part of her cover. To be remotely convincing as a lesbian, Jane _had_ to ogle Maura's very obvious assets. Clearly, it was part of the job.

Now, though, Jane could think of absolutely no work related reason to stare at Maura in all her shirtless glory, and yet, there she was, staring.

Maura, for her part, seemed to see nothing unnatural about her state of undress or about Jane's reaction to it. She smiled brightly at Jane and held out the shirt for her to take. Jane slowly reached out for the shirt, making her best effort to look at Maura's eyes. They were nice eyes, happy eyes even, perky, just like her breasts… no, no, Jane couldn't go there. Just look her in the eyes. That was the only concrete thought Jane could manage as she nodded, took the shirt and handed Maura the two old black t-shirts.

"These should be acceptable," Maura said, as she held them between her fingers and looked closely at the fabric. "It appears to be a cotton blend, similar to the softball jersey. There is significantly more wear, but—

"Maura," Jane said pleadingly, a hand over her eyes. "I can't handle topless talking Google right now. Could you please_, please_ just put it on?"

Jane felt a pang of guilt when she saw Maura's face fall almost imperceptibly. Jane always did that to Maura without ever meaning to. It never ever felt good to see her stop smiling, even if Maura was annoying the hell out of Jane at the moment with her bipolar 'now I'm flirting, now I'm not' routine.

"Hey, it looks better on you than it does on me," Jane said putting a hand on Maura's shoulder and smiling in an attempt to perk the blonde up. It worked and Maura continued smiling like a kid on Christmas morning.

Jane hadn't been lying either. The shirt did look infinitely better on Maura, mostly because it was a bit tighter in just the right places. Jane admired the fit longer than she had intended, settling her eyes on the Boston PD logo scrawled across the chest. Goddamn it, Jane really, really needed to get laid. At this point, she thought even Korsak might do the trick.

"Jane?" Maura said, as if to gently stir her, not wanting to startle her friend.

"Huh, what, yeah," Jane said, looking around the room for something to stare at that wasn't Maura's breasts. She failed miserably and settled on looking at her cell phone to check the time. "I should really get dressed, you know, for the game."

"Oh, yes, of course," Maura said, as if startled out of her own reveries. "I need to go too. I'm on call tonight anyway so I should get home."

"See you tomorrow though?" Jane asked.

Wow, Jane thought, eager much? Such an awkward almost kiss was usually enough to make Jane want to put a few states between herself and that person. But no, now she was eager to see Maura again even when she didn't want to be eager. Must be the beer and wine. Yep, that was definitely what was causing the involuntary eagerness.

"I'd hope so, you owe me lunch," Maura said as she slung her Louis or Louise one of those two, over her shoulder.

It made for quite a picture, seeing Maura Isles in a black Boston PD shirt and Jane's old jeans with a designer bag on her shoulder and expensive light purple heels on her feet. Jane found it unusual that Maura hadn't noticed her own rather odd appearance when Maura was the one who would pester Jane because the blazer that she wore went out of style a year ago.

"Oh yeah, I'll see you then," Jane said, rubbing the scar on the side of her neck. Maura simply smiled and nodded. She was about to open the door when Jane spoke again. "Um, Maura?"

"Yes?" Maura said, turning around and smiling at Jane as if she was expecting something, hoping for something.

"I, um," Jane said, wondering exactly what it was she wanted to say to Maura. Jane Rizzoli never had a problem finding something to say, but here she was floundering for a reason to talk to Maura Isles. "Call me if you get a case."

"But you have tonight off, don't you?" Maura asked.

"Yes, Maura, I have tonight off," Jane said, making her best effort to be patient with Maura's inability to read social situations. "Just call me, ok?"

Maura looked at Jane in that adorable way she did when something didn't quite make sense to her, her eyes squinting in concentration and her lips pursed, before she finally gave up.

"Alright," Maura said with brevity that startled Jane. "I'll see you at work."

"Yup, see you there," Jane said as she watched Maura leave the apartment. Maura seemed to take forever to open the door, which gave Jane plenty of time to shamelessly stare at Maura's fantastic ass. Maura smiled over her shoulder at Jane one more time before shutting the door behind her.

God, Jane so needed to get laid right then and there, preferably, she found herself thinking, by Dr. Maura Isles.

* * *

Maura arrived at the morgue at around 6 a.m. the next morning. She hadn't been called in, and statistically speaking this time of day would not likely yield many case, but she hadn't been able to sleep well. Maura thought she might as well be productive if she was already awake. She set to meticulously scrubbing the sinks and slabs. Maura found the routine soothing, even if Jane could never understand why she cleaned everything more frequently than was necessary.

Oh, Jane.

What was she ever going to do about Jane? Maura had set something into motion that she wasn't sure she understood and that scared her like nothing else. It had been very obvious based upon Jane's body language that she was going to kiss Maura, that she wanted Maura in a sexual way. Maura had wanted the same thing too.

She simply didn't know how to go about something like that, not in the sense that she didn't know how to have sex with a woman. Maura couldn't see any logical reason to abstain from relations with a woman if they both found each other sexually attractive, so she didn't find her attraction to Jane particularly shocking or new.

It was the fact that she and Jane were friends, not just friends, but best friends. Maura's romantic relationships never started out as friendship, ever. It was always a very simple mating ritual that she went through with each of her ex's. They would meet, express mutual interest, start a romantic relationship, and the relationship would eventually end. It was simple. There were no external, confounding variables to be concerned with.

This thing with Jane, though, was different. She had a good friend, a best friend, for the first time in as long as she could remember. That could completely confound things, and irreversibly damage any relationship she would ever have with Jane, platonic or romantic. At least that was based upon psychological studies regarding changes in relationship dynamics. Maura couldn't say for sure if that would be the case in her circumstance. She would have to find some way to further investigate.

Maura sighed and gave up on scrubbing to sit down and think. Maybe if she meditated, Maura might be able to think more clearly and find a solution to the problem, or at least a way to go about researching it. She settled into her usual pose and soon enough found her eye grow heavy until she fell into a deep sleep.

She only woke when the phone rang.

"Medical Examiner's Office, Doctor Maura Isles speaking," Maura said as she rubbed her eye and tried to suppressed a yawn.

"Hey, doc," Korsak said, much more energized than usual for this early in the morning. "You got the autopsy report on the Callahan case? I was thinking of taking another look at it."

"Yes, I have it right here," Maura said as she shuffled a few folders on her desk before finding the autopsy report on Timothy Callahan, the suspected victim of a bad drug deal, though there was no physical evidence. "I'll bring it up to you."

"You sure? I've got nothing going on here, mostly just cold case stuff," Korsak said.

"I think I can spare a few minutes," Maura said as she looked around the empty room.

She hung up the phone and grabbed the file to head upstairs and deliver it. She was actually quite grateful that Korsak's phone call had roused her, because she imagined it would look very unprofessional to be seen sleeping on the job should the Lieutenant stop by to check up on her.

When she reached the homicide division, Maura's eyes immediately went to Jane's desk, but Jane wasn't there so she continued on to Detective Korsak.

"Here it is. Timothy Mark Callahan, age forty eight. Caucasian male. Fractures on his left and right patella. There is a gunshot wound to the right temple that was determined to be cause of death," Maura rattled off as she put the file on the detective's desk.

"Thanks doc," Korsak said as he took the file and flipped it open and looked through Maura's extensive notes.

"You're welcome," Maura said. Glancing over at Jane's empty desk, she added, "Jane hasn't come in today?"

"Yeah, she's been in for a few hours now," Korsak said without looking up from his report. "She and Frost are in a meeting with brass now, something about a joint taskforce with narcotics."

A few hours ago? Jane never arrived quite that early. What time was it, anyway? Maura glanced at the clock on the wall and was startled to see that it was about quarter past 11.

Maura occasionally fell asleep during her meditation, but rarely did she ever fall asleep sitting upright for an extended period of time, as she had apparently just done. Only when she was absolutely exhausted both physically and mentally did Maura's circadian rhythm deviate that much from her normal patterns of behavior.

"Do you know when she'll be back?" Maura asked. She must have sound too eager for the social circumstances because she suddenly had Detective Korsak's full attention.

"Why? You guys have a hot date or something?" he said as he raised his eyebrows.

Maura hesitated. She did not know with certainty if this was in fact a date, or simply payment for the safe return of Jane's shirt. She had suggested the meal at the moment when pheromone levels appeared to be most elevated, but Jane had given no outward indication that she considered the meal a romantic rendezvous.

"No, we don't. We are simply eating lunch together, as we have on a number of occasions as strictly platonic friends," Maura said and nodded her head at the end for emphasis.

"Whatever you say, doc," the detective said as he smiled knowingly.

Maura squinted her eye, at first confused by the detective's seemingly gleeful reaction to her lunch with Jane, then she finally understood. Maura did the one thing she knew how to do when at a loss for what else to say. Talking Google, it was then.

"Did you know your physical reaction to the assumption that Jane and I are in a sexual relationship is likely the result of a male fetishization of lesbianism?" Maura responded, ignoring Korsak's horrified face and the intense blush rising in his cheeks. "It began in the early to mid twentieth century with what are popularly called sexploitatation novels and carried over into the pornography industry. That, in turn, created a larger cultural phenomenon. It can be seen in any number of mainstream films, television shows, songs and other media."

"Um, yeah," Korsak said once he managed to recover from the barrage of information. "You know what, I'll tell Janie that you were looking for her when she gets back."

"Thank you," Maura said, smiling and nodding politely as if they had just had a conversation about any number of everyday matters. "I'll be in the morgue when she's ready for lunch."

Maura turned and left Korsak to ponder things much more interesting than the Callahan file. After all, she had a maybe-date to prepare for.

**A/N-What do you think of Jane's POV? Should I have them take turns, or do you prefer just Maura's POV? This chapter isn't my favorite and I can't say exactly why, so I'd appreciate the feedback.**

**Reviews will make me love ya'll, and not in a creepy, stalkerish way like Maura's sperm donor daddy. Reviews please? :)**


	3. The Maybe Date

**A/N-Here's another chapter to ward off R&I withdrawals...**

**Still don't own 'em...**

Maura did her best to keep busy while waiting for Jane to arrive at the morgue for lunch. Jane, quite the creature of habit, always clocked out for lunch at exactly 12:30 pm, so Maura had to find something that could occupy the next hour.

She decided to alphabetize a stack of cold case autopsies that had piled up on her desk. Most of them were courtesy of Jane insisting on having somewhere nice and quiet to work when 'the boys' were getting on her last nerve. Maura had tried to point out that nerves in the human body are not sequential, and there would be no way of knowing which nerve was Jane's last, but to no avail.

Maura found it quite interesting that she actually did not mind Jane's mess. She usually liked to have her own space and liked to keep that space spotless. True, Jane had invited herself to take a spot at the doctor's desk, but Maura didn't have to like it as much as she did. Maybe it was because Jane's constant presence had become something of the rule rather than the exception. Jane had made herself a part of Maura's routine.

Maura found herself smiling as each file she put into place brought back a fresh memory of Jane reading it. She would be sitting there with that adorable look of intense concentration as she puzzled through facts she had been over dozens of times.

Now there's another something interesting. Maura thought there should be no objective reason for her to find Jane adorable in that situation. On the contrary, biologically speaking, Jane's inability to complete her task efficiently should have been reason to find Jane an unsuitable mate, but Jane's dogged determination made her even more desirable.

Maura suddenly felt a level of distraction similar to when she was at the bar with Jane, this time simply thinking of Jane. She clearly had the same symptoms associated with sexual arousal. This was quite unusual. Normally, she needed the object of her desire to be present to be so driven to distraction.

Maura stopped alphabetizing her files and looked at the clock, eager for her lunch partner to arrive. She frowned when she saw that the clock read 12:42 pm. That was definitely not like Jane, but perhaps the meeting ran late. Maura set about clearing her desk so that there would be room for both herself and Jane to eat. A few minutes later, she heard the door swing shut and Jane entered.

"Hey," Jane said. "Better late than never, right?"

"Please, step into my office," Maura said as she smiled eagerly and gestured to a chair.

Jane returned Maura's smile and nodded as she sat and placed a plastic bag she had been carrying down next to her. She leant over and took out two take out containers and a pair of plastic spoons.

"There, take one," Jane said as she slid one of the containers over to Maura. "It's the best tuna salad in Boston. Just got it too, should be fresh."

"Thank you, Jane. You didn't have to do that," Maura said. Jane had gone out of her way to get a special meal, a possible attempt at showing that she can be an adequate partner and provider for Maura and a sign that Jane did in fact consider this a date.

"I know I didn't have to, now eat up," Jane said, as if embarrassed by the affectionate smile that Maura was giving her. She opened up her container and began poking around with her spoon.

Maura's gaze lingered on Jane as the detective began eating. She realized though that staring, even on a maybe-date, was considered socially unacceptable, so she took a bite of her tuna salad.

"Mmm, this is good," Maura said as she scooped a second spoonful into her mouth. "Mmm, that's _really_ good."

"Do you two want some time alone?" Jane said, raising her eyebrows and smiling playfully.

"No. Why would I want to eat lunch by myself?" Maura asked. She knew there must be something she was missing for Jane to ask such a silly question.

"Never mind, Maura," Jane said, her lip twitching up as if to suppress a smile. "So how's your day been?"

"Slow," Maura said, unwilling to let Jane in on her little snooze, because she knew she would never live it down.

Silence fell over the pair as the continued to eat and Maura got nervous. There was nothing quite as bad as not having something to say in social situations. That was when she usually started diagnosing people or talking Google. Maura perked up when she realized that she did in fact have something to add.

"I visited Detective Korsak earlier."

"Yeah, he told me," Jane said through a mouthful of food. "What did you _do _to him? He wouldn't look me in the eye and he refused to talk about it," Jane said, an amused twinkle in her eye as she looked over at Maura.

"I simply gave him a brief history of a particularly popular sexual fetish," Maura said.

Jane coughed and nearly spit out her food. Maura thought her reaction was a bit extreme, unless of course Jane had a sexual fetish of her own. Maura was tempted to try and figure out what Jane's fetish might be based on certain personality traits, but that might lead to a level of arousal that Maura would not be able to conceal.

"Should I even ask?" Jane asked once she had recovered her composure.

"What we spoke about is rather mainstream by now. Really, it's not a fetish. It's a perfectly normal and acceptable form of sexual expression. It has simply been fetishized by the male population of our culture," Maura said.

"Wait, what?" Jane said as she put her container down and swallowed her last bite of tuna salad.

"Lesbianism, we were talking about the male fetishization of lesbianism," Maura said, as if she was reciting the weather. She saw nothing particularly shocking about such frank and open discussions of human sexuality. It was a valid area of study that she had researched just like any other.

"_Why_?"

"Well it started out with sexploitation novels in the early and mid part of the twentieth century—

"Not that Maura," Jane said as she rolled her eyes, making no obvious attempt to sound patient. "Why did you feel the need to tell Korsak about lesbian fetishes?"

"He may or may not have made certain assumptions about the nature of our relationship," Maura said, then immediately took a large bite of her tuna salad. This was the part that Maura had been trying to avoid for as long as she possibly could without lying. The next logical step would be an exploration of what exactly the nature of their relationship was.

"Hmm," Jane said as she picked up her container again and took a bite. "That happens a lot with us, huh?"

"Wait, you're not upset?" Maura asked.

Jane had responded with a lot more impatience to things that, in Maura's mind, were a lot less significant. It would follow that Jane would have a similarly rash and emotional reaction to assumptions being made about her private life. Then again, Jane had never been one to work in a straightforward and predictable way. It both drove Maura crazy and kept her interested.

"Not really. Why? Are you?" Jane asked. She looked down at her hands, up at Maura, then back down again.

If Maura wasn't mistaken, Jane was currently showing signs of anxiety and insecurity. But about what? Either Jane was under the impression that Maura had an aversion to homosexuality or she too had sensed the sexual tension the previous evening and was not sure how to broach the subject.

"I have no problem with homosexuality, nor do I mind Detective Korsak's assumption that we are in a lesbian relationship," Maura said as she got up to get a water bottle from the 'good' refrigerator. She automatically got two, one for herself and one for Jane, and placed them on her desk. "You're just a bit more, well, cranky about these kinds of personal matters."

"Cranky? What do you mean? I'm not cranky," Jane said.

Maura simply raised her eyebrows dubiously. If she was able to execute her plan just right, Maura would be able to steer Jane away from last night's almost-kiss by starting flirty banter. To be perfectly honest, flirty banter made Maura feel a whole lot better than awkward processing. It probably had something to do with increased pheromone production and arousal levels.

"Alright fine," Jane said, scowling at Maura. "Maybe just a little."

Maura might have thought that Jane was truly upset, but for those expressive eyes. Sparkle wasn't the right word, because, biologically speaking ,eyes wouldn't sparkle, but there was a vitality to Jane's eyes that Maura couldn't quite place or quantify.

"Admitting you have a problem is the first step to fixing it," Maura said with a smile.

"Shut up," Jane said as she gave Maura a playful shove.

"See, you're being cranky again," Maura said, though she returned Jane's smile and shoved her back.

Jane just smiled as she leaned back and took a sip of her water bottle, all without taking her eye off of Maura. If Jane kept looking at Maura like that, Maura thought she might just forget all empirical evidence regarding the fate of workplace romances and romantic developments between friends. She came perilously close to leaning across the table and kissing Jane before Jane suddenly looked away to continue eating her lunch.

Maura did the same and they ate the rest of their lunch in silence. A few times they made lingering eye contact that Maura suspected was not the kind of thing that strictly platonic friends did while having lunch together. When Jane finished her container of tuna salad she put it down on the desk, wiped her hands and stretched her arms above her head.

"Well, I should get back upstairs now," Jane said, though she didn't move from her spot. "You coming out for drinks tonight?"

"Of course, it's a Friday tradition. Can we do karaoke?" Maura asked eagerly, knowing full well that Jane would likely refuse because of a previous drunken trip to a karaoke bar in Chinatown.

"No, Maura. And I told you never to bring up karaoke again," Jane said as she stood up from her seat and picked up the bag she had carried in earlier. "We're probably going to the Dirty Robber again. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot, I brought you a dessert."

Jane took a small white cardboard box out of the bag she had brought in earlier and put it on the desk in front of Maura. Maura opened the box and saw that there was a neat arrangement of sweets that she did not recognize.

"They're chocolate turtles," Jane said. "I mean, I know Bass is technically a tortoise, but they kind of look alike so I thought, you know, it might be kind of cool."

Maura was so touched by the sentiment behind the gift that she didn't even bother to point out that there were, in fact, noticeable differences in the physical appearance of turtles and tortoises.

"Oh, Jane that's so sweet," Maura said as she picked up one of the chocolate turtles and examined it. They looked tasty and they were made with a significant amount of chocolate, a known aphrodisiac. The gift of candy at the end of the meal also seemed to point to Jane's perception of their lunch as a date.

"Ew, it's ok. Let's not get all mushy, now," Jane said dismissively, as she did whenever she was embarrassed by the attention she was getting. "You want to meet at my place around 8?"

"Yes, that would be fabulous," Maura said with what she knew was too much enthusiasm for what Jane was proposing. Maura couldn't help it though; all the pheromones and hormones were putting her in a fantastic mood.

"Alright, see you then," Jane said as she opened the door to leave, failing at concealing a smile at her friend's excessive enthusiasm. Jane waved once more as she walked by the glass window before she disappeared down the hallway.

Maura settled back in her chair and smiled to herself. The good doctor had managed to get yet another maybe-date out of Jane without the detective ever being the wiser. She certainly would not be wasting it.

* * *

Jane left work at precisely 5 pm, not a second later. Things were so slow that she probably could have punched out about an hour or two before then, but she did need to earn a paycheck, so she settled on doing backlogged paperwork until quitting time.

She could have spent the entire afternoon in the morgue with Maura under the pretense of working cold cases, as she sometimes did when things got slow upstairs in homicide. Jane had instead decided that she needed a little space from her flirty friend.

Jane figured that two could play at Maura's little flirting game. Tonight, she intended on getting too drunk for her own good for the sole purpose of getting up the guts to seduce Maura. Yes, seduce, Jane Rizzoli had every intention of seducing Maura Isles.

At this point, after that afternoon's tension filled encounter with Maura, Jane didn't even care if the rest of the squad was at the bar tonight. Screw them and their wise ass remarks and catcalls.

Yeah, maybe Maura was right. Jane was feeling a little cranky.

It really wasn't her fault this time though. Maura started the flirting at the bar. She stopped and started the flirting so much at the apartment that it made Jane's head spin. Then with the flirty banter and those looks during lunch. God, the _looks_. Maura had Jane way too sexually frustrated for her own good, and it was, in fact, making Jane very cranky at the moment.

Jane returned to her apartment after a solid hour of being stuck in gridlocked traffic. She loved the Red Sox, but she could honestly do without all the out of towners clogging the streets as they tried to get to Fenway and the surrounding bars for the Sox-Yankees game. It certainly did nothing to put Jane in a better mood.

Of course, she immediately had to take Jo Friday out for a walk, but Jane didn't so much mind that part. She decided to take Jo for a longer walk than usual, just for something to do because she could not sit still. Nope, Jane Rizzoli was a woman of action, so here she was taking her tiny, scruffy little dog for a walk through the mean streets of Boston.

Jane entered her apartment, put Jo Friday down, and proceeded with her regular routine until she noticed that her kitchen light was on. Jane was sure she hadn't gone in the kitchen earlier and she certainly hadn't turned the lights on when she was going right back out. When she also heard footsteps coming down the hallway, Jane instinctively went for the gun on her hip. She had barely undone the holster when she realized who her unexpected visitor was.

"Jesus, Maura," Jane said as she sighed and took her hand off of her weapon. "What the hell are you doing here? "

"You told me to come over," Maura said, unfazed by the fact that Jane had nearly pulled a gun on her.

"Yeah," Jane said, looking at her watch. "About an hour from now."

"But I thought you liked to, what was your word for it? Pregame, I believe," Maura said as she walked towards the kitchen and took two glasses out of Jane's cabinet.

"I was kind of under the impression that the pregaming would start at 8," Jane said as she tossed her keys on the table.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Would you like me to leave then?" Maura asked, making that kicked puppy dog face that Jane could never say no to.

"No, Maura, of course I don't want you to leave," Jane said as she sat on a chair and faced Maura. "I just don't want to accidentally shoot you either though."

"Good," Maura said as she smiled brightly. She placed the glasses in front of Jane and bent down pick up a brown paper bag. She took out three bottles of alcohol and placed them on the counter in a neat line.

"What are you going to do, play bartender?" Jane asked as she picked up a bottle and looked at it.

"I've done some research and determined that there was a drink we needed to try," Maura said, taking the bottle of vodka that Jane was now fidgeting with and putting it back in its spot.

Jane sighed and leaned back while putting her hands behind her head.

"So what medicine are we serving up today, Doctor Isles?" Jane asked, raising her eyebrows and flashing her best half teasing, half flirting smile. She was, after all, going to have to lay it on really thick for Maura to pick up on her intentions.

"It is commonly called a Screaming Orgasm," Maura said, and without missing a beat she began unscrewing the cap of the first bottle.

**A/N-A mini-cliffy for you. At least it's nothing compared to that finale. Haven't decided how to address that yet. I'll either incorporate it or write a seprate, slightly angstier fic. Thoughts?**

**Yesterday was my birthday, and what did R&I give me? A big ol' ten month, slowmo cliffhanger. Please make up for the heartbreak with a little review. Please? :)**


	4. Screaming Orgasms

**A/N-All of your reviews are awesome. Keep it up! **

**Breaking news! I'm still not making any money from this…**

"_It's commonly called a Screaming Orgasm," Maura said, and without missing a beat she began unscrewing the cap of the first bottle._

Maura's choice of drink had worked just as she had hoped. Not only would alcohol help to naturally lower both of their inhibitions, but this would be a good way to bring things around to sex without actually talking about their current, complicated state of affairs.

It also had the desired effect of absolutely throwing Jane off her game and creating that blush that Maura so adored. Clearly the other woman's mind hadn't been far from sex. That much was obvious from the way Jane's pupils reacted to the mention of orgasms.

"I mean, I'm sure it's good Maura," Jane said after blinking a few times to process the unusual name. "But no drink is _that_ good."

"That's not what I meant, Jane," Maura said as she measured out Bailey's Irish Cream and put some in each cup. "It _is_ quite good, but that is the given name of this particular drink. There are a number of similarly named drinks, but I, myself, prefer Screaming Orgasms."

Jane suddenly coughed and cleared her throat for no particular reason. Maura didn't quite understand why until she rethought her word choice. She actually felt proud that she had produced such a noticeable physical reaction in Jane at the mere reference to her own sexual release, even if the play on words was unintentional.

"Really?" Jane said as she leaned with her elbows on the counter in front of her, chin resting on her hand. Jane's fingers traced lightly along her lower lip, a sign, likely a subconscious one, that she was sexually aroused.

"Yes, really," Maura said as she finished mixing the ingredients. "I'm not sure of the origin of the name, but it's quite good."

Jane took one of the cups and sniffed it as Maura watched her closely for physical signs of enjoyment. She appeared to be carrying a lot of muscle tension in her shoulders and neck. Hopefully the rather strong drink would help to alleviate that.

"Mmm," Jane said. Her eyes fluttered closed as she moved the glass closer to take another whiff of Maura's concoction. "That does smell good."

"It's even better when you taste it," Maura said as she held up her own glass to her lips and smiled at Jane while making lingering eye contact. She was well aware of _that_ particular innuendo.

"Let's say I do try it," Jane said, her voice even deeper than usual. Her eyes met Maura's before gravitating towards Maura's lips. "What will you do for me?"

"What do you want from me, Jane?" Maura asked, the cup still held up to her lips as if she was about to drink.

"I don't know yet," Jane said as she swirled the drink around while still looking at Maura. "I'll have to think about it."

"That will be acceptable," Maura said. "I'll just need you to get back to me by the end of the night."

"You, Dr. Isles, have yourself a deal," Jane said.

She took a small sip, then a larger gulp. "God, that is some good shit, Maura."

Maura took a gulp of her own and smiled at Jane's reaction. She had hoped that Jane would like the concoction, but the detective had a habit of resisting any drink that wasn't beer.

"I've been testing samples of a number of drinks and this was the best one," Maura said as she put her glass down. She resisted the temptation to scold Jane for her swearing. That could be done later.

"Mmm, I'm sure you were very thorough," Jane said after she swallowed the rest of her drink and held the cup out to Maura. "Wanna make me another one?"

Maura laughed and took the glass from Jane. She poured the ingredients, careful to make precise measurements. The drink was, after all, quite strong on its own without adding too much vodka and contributing to Jane getting alcohol poisoning.

"Just take your time with these, Jane. They're quite strong," Maura said as she handed Jane the cup. "It is 26% alcohol. Your liver will not be able to process this in the same way that it processes beer. Too many of these too quickly could cause you to become violently ill."

"You'd make one hell of a bartender there, Maura," Jane said while she lifted her drink as if to toast Maura.

"Thank you, Jane," Maura said as she too raised her glass. She wasn't entirely sure that Jane was sincere, but she decided to treat it as such.

Jane smiled and shook her head. "You're very welcome."

Maura purposely looked Jane directly in the eyes and maintained eye contact. She needed to gauge her friend's reaction to their current social situation. Jane smiled at Maura, but didn't break eye contact.

"You know, you can just ask," Jane said as she put her once again empty glass on the table and leaned so that she was closer to Maura.

"What do you mean?" Maura asked, startled by Jane's sudden proximity.

Jane, whose mannerisms clearly indicated that she was feeling the effects of two strong drinks in the span of about two minutes, reached out and touched Maura's wrist. Maura almost jumped at the sudden contact and the arousal that accompanied it. She wondered if Jane knew the full, physical effect that she had on Maura.

"If you want to know what I'm thinking," Jane said as she ran a finger slowly over Maura's hand, which lay flat on the counter. "You know you can just ask. You don't have to do that face muscle analyzing thing all the time."

"I, I know," Maura said.

She should really have moved her hand if she were to have any hope of objectively determining where this relationship should go, as was her intention when starting the evening. Despite those considerations, for some reason that she could not accurately explain, Maura remained perfectly still and let Jane run her fingers over her hand.

"Ok, just as long as you know that I would never lie to you," Jane said with uncharacteristic tenderness as she pulled her hand away, much to Maura's disappointment.

"Yes, of course I do, Jane," Maura said as she took Jane's empty glass. This was getting way too intense for Maura way too quickly. She needed to go about these things slowly and methodically. "Do you want another drink?"

"What happened to me getting violently ill?" Jane said.

"I've noticed that you have an unusually high alcohol tolerance for a female of your height and weight," Maura said as she unscrewed the cap to the Irish Cream and put a dash in each of their empty glasses. "You should be safe, so long as you don't drink to excess at the bar."

"Yeah, cuz I _never_ do that," Jane said. Again, Jane and her sarcasm. Maura was grateful that at least Jane's brand of sarcasm was usually obvious enough for her to pick up on. That wasn't the case most of the time with other people.

"I'm serious, Jane," Maura said as she pushed Jane's third drink towards her, against her better judgment. "I'm a doctor. I should not even be giving you this drink. You're already clearly intoxicated."

"Am not!" Jane said after taking a sip of her drink. She stood up as if to prove her point, but instead had to hold onto the counter for a moment to steady herself. "I'm just tired. It's been a hell of a week."

"Not particularly," Maura said putting her cup back down and tilting her head to the side as she recalled the previous week's activities. "There were no homicides and any work you did primarily involved backlogged files. This week was actually the easiest week, in terms of workload, that we've had in about two months."

"I wasn't talking about work, Maura," Jane said as she picked up her glass and turned towards her living room. "Let's go sit somewhere more comfortable."

Maura, who had remained standing during their whole exchange, willingly followed Jane and sat on the sofa next to her friend. Jane plopped down next to Maura, much closer than was strictly necessary, considering the fact that the sofa was intended to fit about two to three more people.

"What did you mean? When you said you weren't talking about work," Maura said in an effort to keep pheromone and arousal levels from spiraling out of control at the very intimate situation that she currently found herself in. "Is there something wrong with your parents?"

"No, nothing like that," Jane said.

She looked down at her glass and ran a finger around the rim. Again, Jane appeared to be exhibiting signs of anxiety and stress in addition to the arousal that had been there since the mention of orgasms. Was she talking about Maura? Is that what the 'hell of a week' meant?

"What then? What is it?" Maura said as she reached out her hand to touch Jane's knee. She had hoped that avoiding skin on skin contact would keep her arousal at a reasonable level, but Maura had no such luck.

"I don't know. Never mind, it's nothing," Jane said. She took another drink. Maura gave her a stern look that she hoped would get Jane to confess. "What? What are you looking at me like that for?"

"Remember, Jane. You gave me your word that you wouldn't lie to me," Maura said. "Now I am asking. What are you feeling? Why was this a difficult week?"

Jane sighed and leaned forward. She took another sip, placed her cup on the coffee table and put her face in her hands. She looked up and gave Maura her tired half grin.

"I have this situation," she said, and Maura could tell she was picking her words carefully by the way that she enunciated each syllable despite being intoxicated. "There's been someone that I know. This person, they have been acting in a way that is, um, very flirty. They are very good at getting to me, arousing me, like you would say. I just, I don't know if they even know what they're doing."

Maura was reasonably certain that 'this person' was actually herself. She didn't normally like to make such assumptions, but all of the signs were there, and it would explain Jane's sudden shifts between boldly flirty and shy.

"Have you spoken to this person about your concerns?" Maura asked. When she looked at Jane to say this, she realized that Jane was once again looking at her lips. Not that she minded at all.

"Not really. Well, I guess, maybe indirectly," Jane said as she sat back with her legs apart so that she brushed up against Maura's knee. "I still don't know if they get it though."

"Jane," Maura said, putting her glass down next to Jane and turning so that she was facing her friend. "I believe I understand."

Jane snapped her head around to look directly at Maura. She didn't speak for a moment, just looking intently at the medical examiner for some signs as to what she meant. Maura purposely made her own expression as unreadable as possible, hoping to allow Jane to draw the conclusion that she most preferred.

"Really?" Jane finally said.

If Maura wasn't well versed in body language, she would not have noticed that Jane leaned in a little bit closer as she said this. Maura was positive that, if physics allowed, the air would have sizzled with the sexual tension. She certainly felt like that was the case.

"Yes, I do," Maura said. She too felt herself instinctively moving closer to Jane, as if propelled by some invisible force. "Is this person a woman?"

She needed that one last piece of information, just to be absolutely positive that they were talking about the same thing.

"Yeah," Jane said, licking her lips and making no effort to conceal the fact that she was staring at Maura's lips. "I just don't know what to do next."

"Oh, Jane," Maura said. She reached out and tucked a curly lock of hair behind Jane's ear, leaving her hand on Jane's shoulder in a way that she hoped would be comforting. "Just ask her. I'm certain she won't reject you."

"Doctor Maura Isles is certain of something? Now, you don't hear that every day," Jane said. "What makes you so sure?"

Maura decided that she'd had enough thinly veiled discussion about her own flirty behavior. She looked directly at Jane and gently put pressure on the back of her friend's neck to pull her closer. Jane's eye's fluttered closed and Maura instinctively did the same when she felt Jane's breath on her own lips. Maura hesitated just a second when she heard a muffled noise. It took her a second, but she recognized it as Jane's ringtone for Detective Frost.

"Jane," Maura whispered, pulling away just enough so that she could think coherently.

"Yeah, Maura," Jane said, her eyes still closed.

"It's your phone," Maura said. "Maybe you should get it."

"No, it's alright," Jane said. She looked up, and Maura could tell that Jane was struggling to control her own sexual impulses. "He'll call back."

"No, Jane," Maura said more firmly this time, gently placing her hands on Jane's shoulder. "It's Detective Frost. It might be a murder."

"I hope so," Jane muttered as fumbled to get the cell phone out of her pocket.

"Jane!"

"What? I'm just saying it better be important," Jane said defensively as she finally managed to get her phone out. She pressed the speak button. "This better be fucking good, Frost."

Maura tried to admonish Jane for her rudeness and swearing, but Jane put up a finger to silence her as she listened to Frost on the other end.

"That's what you called me for? You called me because I'm not at the bar the second you get there," Jane snapped, then listened for a second before adding no less snappishly. "Fine, you know what, I'll be there in a little while. Do you think you can handle that?"

Jane hung up the phone, tossed it on to the table, grabbed her drink and finished what was left of it. She leaned back into the couch, put her hands over her eyes and groaned in frustration.

Maura too picked up her glass and finished what little was left, hoping it might soothe the anxiety that had bubbled up as Jane spoke on the phone. Maura had just wanted that kiss so badly, and she wondered if Jane would think otherwise based on her insistence that Jane answer her partner's call.

"Well," Jane finally said to break the silence that had fallen over the room. "We should probably head to the bar now."

"Yes, you did tell Detective Frost we would be there," Maura said as she rose from her seat on the sofa.

She didn't have any particular desire to go out at the moment, not with her hormones and two strong drinks significantly impairing her rational judgment. They did, however, both make a commitment to at least make an appearance at the Dirty Robber, and Maura Isles always honored her commitments.

"Alright, let's go," Jane said as she got up slowly from her seat.

Maura suspected it might be so that she would not get dizzy, as she had before. When she had steadied herself, Jane lifted her hand up as if she were about to take Maura's hand, but instead let it drop down to her side. She walked quickly over to the door and opened it.

"You coming?" she asked, not with the same impatience as she had spoken to Frost with, though it was clear from the tension in her neck and shoulders that she was still upset.

Maura nodded and smiled at Jane. She walked out the door, making sure to brush her finger ever so slightly against Jane as she went by, as if by accident. Maura thought she heard Jane inhale sharply, but ignored the reaction as she continued out the door.

**A/N- I know this was an all Maura chapter, it just sort of happened that way. Hope you don't mind. :) I have a poll up on my profile that may determine POV in a future oneshot. Just thought I'd put that out there...**

**Screaming Orgasms are tasty, real life drinks that will in fact knock you flat on your rear end. Trust me, I ran a thorough, scientific experiment to confirm these findings at my 22****nd**** birthday party. ****Please reward my intrepid scientific endeavors with reviews. Please? **


	5. Three More Shots

**A/N-I went longer than I had hoped to here, but this scene is like the drunken evening that won't end...**

Jane followed Maura into the crowded bar and edged their way to the usual table out back. Jane normally liked to lead the way, to be in charge, but, in her state of drunkenness and perpetual sexual frustration, she was content to stay behind and shamelessly ogle how well those designer jeans fit Maura's ass.

When they reached the table, Jane managed to take her eyes off of Maura long enough to give Frost her best 'I'm going to kick your ass when no one is looking' glares.

"You'll have to excuse her, she's feeling a little cranky today," Maura said as she smiled at Frost and sat down in one of the open chairs.

Korsak smiled knowingly at Jane, too knowingly for Jane's liking. What the hell had Maura said to him? Jane had definitely never let on that she even batted for the other team, let alone that she had the major hots for Maura.

"You do seem a little on edge," Korsak said with that shit-eating grin as he put down his beer. "Now, what do you think could be causing that, Janie?"

"I don't know, maybe it's because I have a partner and an ex-partner who can't manage to have a social life if I'm not there," Jane snapped as she gritted her teeth together.

She didn't need this right now. Usually Jane could take the ribbing she got from the guys, but she was in no mood at the moment. To put it bluntly, Jane was drunk and horny and she couldn't seem to close the deal with the one woman she wanted so badly.

"Jane, there's no reason to be rude," Maura said as she put her wristlet down and pulled her seat closer to the table. "They had no idea that we were busy having Screaming Orgasms."

Frost eyes widened and he put down his beer abruptly. His reaction would have been comical had Jane not been so mortified by what kind of thoughts were more than likely going through his mind. She adored Maura, but the woman needed to work on having a filter sometimes.

"It's just a drink, Frost. Get your mind out of the gutter," Jane said. She would never ever admit it, but she too immediately thought of deliciously dirty things when she heard Maura first say those words.

"Yeah, Frost. It's just a drink why on Earth would you think it was anything else?" Korsak said.

Jane balled up her fists and was ready to snap at Korsak and his smug little retorts, but Maura put a hand on her arm and Jane forgot what she'd had in mind.

"Jane, why don't you go buy us a round," Maura said as she unzipped her small purse, took out a twenty dollar bill and handed it to Jane. "This one will be on me."

Jane looked at Maura. She thought she ought to complain about being the one to get the drinks when she was probably the drunkest. She didn't though. Maura had subtly moved aside her sleeve so that her pinky was now touching bare skin, and Jane couldn't say no when Maura looked her in the eyes like that. Jane was so very whipped, a fact she was becoming increasingly aware of. _No one_ could make Jane Rizzoli do half the things that she did at a mere look or touch from Maura.

"Alright," Jane said, rising from her seat, doing so slowly so that she wouldn't look as tipsy as she felt. Maura's drinks were definitely a whole lot stronger than beer. "What'll it be?"

"Surprise me," Maura said, zipping her purse and smiling up at Jane.

Jane quickly turned and left her buddies and Maura. She wondered if Maura even had a clue how very flirty she was in _everything _she said. It appeared to be the one form of social interaction that came naturally to her, at least when she was talking to Jane. And touchy, what was with all the touching all the sudden? If she didn't know any better, Jane would have thought that tipsy Maura knew exactly what she was doing, and Jane couldn't do a damn thing about it. At least not in a bar with Frost and Korsak watching.

Jane pushed her way to the bar, and waved down Murray, who recognized her as a regular and went right over to take her order. Jane managed to get the four bottles back to the table without dropping any of them, a minor miracle considering her less than sober state.

"I got some Sam Adams for a change. Drink up," Jane said as she sat down and took one for herself.

Frost and Korsak each quickly grabbed a bottle while Maura was the last to start drinking. She looked at the bottle and took a small sip as if at a wine tasting then licked her lips to get the full effect. God, Jane had been so close, so very close to tasting those gorgeous lips.

"Not bad," Maura said slowly as she held the bottle under her nose to smell it. "It has good texture and the aroma points to the use of high quality hops."

Jane looked up at Maura, having only realized that her friend was speaking because her lips were moving as Jane admired them.

"Huh, yeah," Jane said, nodding and taking a long drink. "That's good."

"Are you feeling alright, Jane?" Maura asked as she turned and looked more closely at Jane. "You know, perhaps you should not be mixing carbonated alcohol with hard liquor. You're already clearly intoxicated."

"I'm fine. I've done it plenty of times before. Never had a problem," Jane said, then poked Maura in the shoulder. "It's you we have to worry about."

"Me? I always moderate my alcohol intake and I have not had nearly as much to drink as you have," Maura said, raising her eyebrow as she eyed Jane's already half empty beer.

"What? Like you said, I have a high threshold or whatever," Jane said waving her hand around. She knew whatever Maura had said wasn't especially scientific, not for Maura at least, but Jane couldn't be bothered to focus enough to remember.

"I don't know, Jane. I've noticed in you a certain lack of impulse control," Maura said as she smiled and took another small sip of her beer.

"I had enough impulse control earlier," Jane muttered so that only Maura could hear.

Maura's eyes flicked up to Jane's at the reference to the near kiss. There was something there that Jane was unaccustomed to seeing. Maura never seemed subject to the same kind of intense emotions that Jane experienced on what felt like a constant basis. Now though, Jane could see an emotional intensity that rather surprised her. Quite frankly, she found it really hot that she had caused that.

"Yeah, I have to agree with Dr. Isles on this one, Jane," Korsak said as he put his beer down on the table.

Both Jane and Maura turned to look at Korsak. Jane had almost forgotten that they had company. It appeared Maura had as well, because she, usually full of all sorts of science mumbo-jumbo for any occasion, looked at a loss for words.

"What'd you mean?" Jane asked.

"About you being a hothead," Frost interjected as he leaned back so that the front feet of his chair came a few inches off the ground. "It's true. No self control."

"Hey! I have plenty of self control," Jane said as she pointed from her partner to her ex-partner. "I deal with your shit all the time."

"Jane, language!" Maura said.

Really? Language? She was two and half drinks into the night and Maura was still worried about Jane's _language_? Well, Maura was nothing if not consistent.

"Yeah, Janie, language," Korsak said, mimicking Maura's tone. "This is not the place for that kind of talk."

"Shut up," Jane said as she kicked Frost under the table for cracking up at Korsak's impersonation. As ridiculous as Jane found Maura's scolding to be, she knew that Maura was sensitive about being laughed at for her sometimes inappropriate commentary. "Don't you two have to go play pool or something?"

Frost immediately stopped laughing and winched as Jane's foot connected with his shin. Jane allowed herself a little grin of self satisfaction at his reaction.

"You know what, maybe I will," Korsak said with that same smug look as when Jane and Maura entered together. He looked from Maura to Jane, then added, "But only because I need another beer. Come on Barry, I can't play by myself."

Detective Frost immediately rose from the table as he eyed Jane warily.

Jane couldn't help but be a little grateful that Korsak had got the hint and made himself scarce, but a part of her was actually scared out of her mind. Maura was just so, well, _unusual_. Sometimes she seemed to get their whole scenario better then Jane. Then, the next minute she was talking about tuna, or Frost's ringtone, or something else that was decidedly unsexy. For all Jane knew, Maura's flirtations were entirely accidental side effects of her adorable, frustrating obliviousness to social conventions.

Jane was determined to find out what was on Maura Isles' mind once and for all. She swallowed the rest of her beer, put her bottle down on the table and grinned at Maura.

* * *

As she had sat in the cab with a sullen, cranky Jane on the short ride to the bar, Maura decided that she was the one responsible for Jane's bad mood, and that needed to be fixed as soon as possible.

She knew that beer made Jane happy, so when she saw that the other detectives were putting Jane in an even worse mood, Maura did the only logically thing. She got them all beer. Beyond that, Maura could not quite deduce what it was that would make Jane happier. She was sure she could figure it out with enough objective observation.

The objective part was going to be difficult though, especially now that Jane was smiling at her, and touching her knee, no, rubbing her knee. Well, that actually felt quite pleasurable. Maura felt her body immediately react despite her own efforts to control it so that she might first figure out what Jane needed to be less cranky.

"I'm going to get another drink. You want something?" Jane said, keeping her hand on Maura's knee.

Maura knew that she should slow down her alcohol consumption, but Jane's hand was on her knee, and Maura was already tipsy. The hormones, pheromones and booze were too much for Maura's objective faculties to fight.

"I'd love one," Maura said, even though she still had at least a few more sips left in her bottle. "Beer?"

Goodness, now she was losing her capacity for speaking in full sentence. Maura needed to get herself together and quickly. She went for her purse to get out another twenty, but Jane stopped her.

"Nope, this one will be on me," Jane said, then turned before Maura could open her mouth to argue. "I'll be right back."

Maura watched as Jane disappeared into the crowd. It afforded her the opportunity to watch Jane without being too socially inappropriate, and Maura definitely liked watching Jane. The way she walked, how the detective carried herself in a way that demanded you pay attention, it fascinated Maura. That, and Jane's very well formed, toned musculature. Maura really enjoyed appreciating that too.

Jane quickly returned to the table carrying two bottles of beer. She sat down and rested her feet on the now empty chair across from her. When Maura didn't immediately start drinking, Jane gestured to the full bottle.

"Come on, drink."

"I already have one to finish," Maura said raising her almost empty bottle. "If I didn't know any better, I would think that you were trying to get me drunk, Detective Rizzoli."

"Maybe I am," Jane said, raising her eyebrows as she lifted her beer to her mouth."Are you going to let me?"

"Perhaps," Maura said. She put her elbow on the table and leaned on her hand so that she was closer to Jane. She ran a finger along the bottom of her lip, unaware of what she was doing at first. "It depends."

"Mmm, on what?" Jane said as she put her beer down and rested her arm on the back of her chair so that she was facing Maura.

"What's in it for me?" Maura asked, her voice deeper than she had meant for it to be.

Well that might be a problem. Deepening of vocal intonations, in combination with subconscious lip touching was definitely a sign that Maura was fighting a losing battle to control her physiological reaction to Jane.

"What do you want?" Jane asked, her eyes trailing again to Maura's lips.

Given that Jane had done that exact thing about three times in the past hour, Maura decided it would be acceptable for her to indulge in a lingering look of her own. Maura got so distracted by looking at Jane that she did not even answer her friend's question. Jane, however, was equally distracted and significantly more intoxicated, so she did not pick up on Maura's silence.

Maura knew what she wanted though. That was rare, that Maura would know anything with such certainty. She wanted Jane, and she couldn't understand why she hadn't acted on that desire yet. No, she knew why. Such behavior with a friend would be rash and ill-advised. Maura could not bring herself to risk it.

Jane cleared her throat and looked away as she fidgeted with her almost empty bottle. Maura looked away too and took a small sip of her own beer. Silence, again with the silence. Maura liked quiet when she was in her morgue, that's where the silence belonged. It was not meant for social interactions.

"Did you know that some archaeologists credit beer with motivating Neolithic man's shift from a nomadic existence to more settled farming communities? It is believed that they wanted to be able to farm the grain needed to make beer," Maura said.

"Really? You don't say," Jane said. She started laughing hysterically, doubling over and clutching at the table. Maura wasn't sure what was so funny, but suspected Jane's consumption of nearly five drinks in about two hours might have something to do with it.

"Yes, I do," Maura said, she tilted her head to the said curiously and watched Jane try and fail to regain her composure. Jane had an infectious laugh, and even though Maura hadn't a clue what Jane found so humorous about archaeology, she too began to laugh.

"What, why are you laughing?" Maura asked as her own laughter subsided.

"It's just, it's," Jane gasped before catching her breath and continuing. "It's so you. To just pull that out of your ass when you're probably drunk. It's kind of amazing."

Maura furrowed her brow as she tried to make sense of what Jane had just said. She clearly hadn't literally pulled anything from any part of her body, so it must have been one of Jane's figures of speech that didn't make any sense. Jane noticed Maura's confusion and rubbed her shoulder.

"It's alright. I just didn't expect it, that's all," Jane said, standing up and hold her hand out for Maura. "Come with me, I'm going to drink at the bar."

"But won't we lose the table?"

"Shit, yeah," Jane said, quickly dropping her hand to her side. "You stay here, I'll be right back. You want anything?"

"Just a water please," Maura said. "I'm feeling a bit parched. Alcohol does have the effect of causing dehydration if one drinks quickly."

"Alright, then," Jane said, the trace of a smile still on her lips. "I'll see what I can do."

When Jane left, Maura took the opportunity to take a very unladylike gulp of her beer. She generally tried not to, but there were occasions where using alcohol as a social lubricant became necessary. This was one of those occasions.

When Jane returned, she carried a full shot glass and a glass of water.

"Jane, is that tequila?" Maura said warily.

"Yep," Jane said. "Jose Cuervo. Want one?"

"No, I don't. You shouldn't either," Maura said. "Drinking carbonated alcohol before hard alcohol will make you violently ill, Jane. It's not a matter of alcohol tolerance. It's a matter of metabolic processes."

She may have been inebriated, but Maura still knew that Jane would regret this decision in the morning. If Jane really wanted to do something, though, all the science in the world wasn't going to convince her otherwise.

"Too late, I already took one," Jane said as she pushed the glass of water across the table to Maura. "Some idiot at the bar bet me five buck I couldn't take five shots of tequila. Murray's sending the rest of them over here."

"Jane! That kind of drinking is an excellent way to get alcohol poisoning."

"It's ok, Maura, it's alright," Jane said, running her words together as she patted Maura's hand. Maura thought that must be an indication that the first shot of tequila was beginning to enter Jane's blood stream. "It's cute, you worrying, but I'm good."

"Cute? I'm not a fluffy puppy dog, Jane. I'm a forensic pathologist," Maura said indignantly. Though not especially offended by Jane's characterization, Maura still felt the need to assert her position in order to avoid becoming the cute, harmless friend.

"Shh, never mind," Jane said, then gestured to Maura's right hand. "Dip your finger in the water."

"What? No, Jane. That's very unsanitary," Maura said.

"I'll go get you another one," Jane said, then smiled and batted her eyelashes. "Just dip your finger in and give it to me."

Maura wasn't one to blush easily at flirting or sexual innuendos. Yet hearing Jane and her beautiful voice say something that sounded so sexual made color rise in her cheeks.

Maura did as she was told because she could not say no to Jane when she was smiling and batting her eyelashes like that. Jane picked up the salt shaker at the table and poured it liberally over Maura's wet finger.

"Ok, now I'm going to take the shot, then I lick the salt," Jane said. Before Maura could protest, Jane had downed the shot, only wincing a little bit.

Then the good part happened, or at the very least, the most pleasurable and arousing for Maura. Jane licked Maura's finger slowly, twirling her tongue around once before pulling away, all while looking directly at Maura.

Jane sat back with a self satisfied grin on her face. She had obviously noticed Maura's eyes flutter and her breath catch as Jane licked up the salt.

"There's more of where that came from," Jane said, pointing at Maura. "I still have three more shots to take."

**A/N-I gave you some more Jane. Do you guys think I should feature her more, or am I ok where I'm at right now?**

**Story alerts and favorite alerts are like your partner telling you that _someday_ they could see themselves proposing to you. It's very much appreciated, but there's not much that would compare to actually seeing them get down on one knee. In the same way, there's nothing quite like a review. So, please, won't you pop the question? :)**


	6. Need Your Neck

**Still don't own 'em…**

"_There's more of where that came from," Jane said, pointing at Maura. "I still have three more shots to take." _

"Really, Jane?" Maura whined. God, she _never_ whined. Maura wanted desperately for Jane to do that again, but the small rational part of her still working said that, for the sake of Jane's health, she ought to put a stop to it. "Do you think that's wise?"

"Probably not," Jane said, then she lowered her already deep voice and added. "But it actually tastes pretty good with that chaser I just had."

Goodness, Jane was getting awfully bold. There was no mistaking the fact that she was referring to her own arousal at having licked Maura's finger rather unnecessarily. There had been no reason Jane could not have used her own finger, and there was no practical reason for her to lavish so much attention on the task. She had though, and for that Maura was profoundly grateful.

"Hey, Rizzoli, I got your shots," a young man said to interrupt Maura's pleasant recollection of what had just happened. "You better not fucking puke on the floors. I just cleaned 'em."

"Don't worry," Jane said then gestured to Maura and said. "And watch your language, Smitty. We're in the company of a lady. This is my, uh, friend _Doctor_ Maura Isles."

Although Maura was well aware that Jane had no aversion at all to cursing, she appreciated that, even while quite drunk, Jane was trying to follow Maura's advice. It was endearing, yet another sign that Jane felt affection towards Maura. Not that she needed much more in the way of empirical evidence, but it didn't hurt.

"Nice to meet you," the young man said, his attention focused fully on Maura.

His pupils were showing signs of sexual interest, but Maura could not find him all that appealing. He wasn't unattractive, with his mop of brown hair and reasonably toned physique, but he was no Jane. Regardless, Maura felt compelled to be polite.

"Likewise," Maura said as she took the man's hand.

"If you need anything," he said, holding her hand longer than was appropriate for the situation. "Maybe a drink on the house, just let me know. I'll take good care of you."

"Thanks, Smitty, we're good," Jane said impatiently, eyeing his hand as he continued to hold Maura's. "Murray looks kinda busy, you better get back to work."

"Yeah, whatever," he said letting go of Maura's hand and starting to turn back to the bar. "Just trying to show your friend a good time."

* * *

Jane glared at the back of Smitty's head as he walked away. When he dared turn around again to try to flash Maura a smile, Jane continued glaring and made a motion to shoo him along. Jane didn't like that guy, not one bit.

"Jane, there's no need to be rude," Maura said as she leaned over and took a sip of her water, apparently having forgotten about getting a new glass.

"Did you see that? He was hitting on you," Jane said indignantly. She hoped that Maura had not caught on to his motives, that she was simply being polite. All Jane needed was competition when she couldn't close the deal with Maura as it was.

"Yes, he was showing sexual interest," Maura said as she sat up straight and cocked her head to the side, as she often did when explaining something. "But that is a perfectly natural, normal part of the human mating ritual in a perfectly acceptable setting. I don't see what you're so upset about."

"Because, I just," Jane said. "I don't know. He's no good for you."

Jane honestly had no good reason to keep Maura from 'mating' with Smitty. He was a decent guy, and good looking, as far as guys went. There was just the very obvious, intense chemistry that she had with Maura. Jane could not stand the thought of losing out because she was too much of a chicken shit to say out loud what was glaringly obvious. There were sparks, no, big light-up-the-sky fireworks every time they touched, and Jane couldn't ignore it any more.

"Give me one good reason why he wouldn't be a suitable mate for me? Why shouldn't I go home with him tonight?" Maura asked raising her eyebrows as if she suspected Jane couldn't complete the task.

Jane was fairly certain that Maura had no sexual interest in the man. Even if she was no expert in occipital spatulas or whatever those eye things were, Jane could read Maura, and Maura had only been polite, not flirty. Still, Jane felt a surge of jealousy at the mere suggestion that Maura might be going home with someone else.

"Alright, I'll give you more than one," Jane said, the added putting her hand over Maura's. "But first, I'll need your hand again."

Maura looked as if she was struggling with some sort of moral problem, but Jane could not understand what it might be. She had all but moaned out loud last time Jane licked her finger, so Jane was pretty certain Maura had enjoyed it. Jane smiled as she ran her fingers up Maura's wrist then back down. It proved to be quite the incentive as Maura quickly dipped the finger in the water and held it out for Jane.

"This better be worth it," Maura said. "I'm not normally inclined to do something so unsanitary."

"It will be," Jane said as she took the salt and sprinkled it over Maura's finger.

Having developed a tolerance, Jane actually didn't need anything to cut the taste of the tequila, but this was a good way of getting her lips on Maura's skin. It also afforded Jane the opportunity to see Maura's eyes flutter closed and hear that almost inaudible, beautiful sigh.

Jane picked up the next shot and knocked it back with ease. Then she took Maura's finger and licked it lightly at first to get the salt off before running her tongue, more slowly this time, along the same path. Jane took the tip of Maura's finger in her mouth and lingered for a second before pulling back and surveying her handiwork.

Maura was sitting perfectly still and she had just opened her eyes to look at Jane. An involuntary smile had crept across Maura's lips, which she was trying and failing to control.

"So," Maura said shaking her head as if to refocus her attention. "What was that first reason?"

"Reason for what?"

"Are you really that drunk, Jane? You were going to give me one reason that I should not take Smitty as a sexual mate," Maura said.

Why did she always have to talk like that? _Sexual mate_? Really? And more importantly, why push the issue so much? It had been obvious that Maura was not attracted to Smitty. Was she _trying_ to make Jane jealous? If so, it was working like a charm. Jane balled her fists as she spoke.

"Because," Jane started. Having drunk quite a bit already, Jane was in no condition to argue with Maura. So, she said the first thing that came to mind. "You're here with me."

Maura blinked at Jane, apparently uncertain of how to react to such a bold statement. Jane rubbed the scars on her hands and avoided eye contact. Maura was about to open her mouth, but Jane decided to save her the trouble.

"I mean, not like that, you know," Jane said quickly. "Just that, you know, you already had company."

"Yes, yes, of course," Maura said before taking another sip of her water.

Was it just wishful thinking on Jane's part, or did Maura sound disappointed? Jane thought it was very possible considering the heavy flirting going on, but she was struggling to put together two coherent thoughts in a row at the moment, so she couldn't be sure.

"Well, I should take another shot," Jane said.

Maura gave her a disapproving look, the same one that she did when Jane insisted on lying about something to further a case. She didn't say anything though. Either Maura was too buzzed to care or she had given up completely on controlling drunken Jane. Regardless, she dunked her finger in the water and held it out for Jane.

Jane suddenly had a fantastic idea. The kind of stroke of brilliance that you only dare to dream up after several drinks in quick succession and, boy, was it a good one. She smirked mischievously at Maura.

"I don't need your finger this time," Jane said. She reached out and moved Maura's soft curls off her shoulder. "I need your neck."

Maura squinted her eyes in confusion for a moment before they widened with the realization of Jane's intentions.

"Ah, oh, yes, ok," Maura stammered as she moved her hair aside more and ran her wet finger over the side of her neck. "I'll just, I'll wet it so the salt will stick."

Jane had her friend just where she wanted her; totally and completely hanging on Jane's every whim. She sprinkled the salt on Maura's neck, picked up the shot and looked at Maura for a second. This was it. She was finally going to do what she had wanted to do for a long time now.

Jane tilted her head back and finished the drink quickly. She leaned over and hesitated for a second, inches from Maura's neck. Then she ran her tongue slowly, ever so slowly over where she had sprinkled the salt. She allowed her tongue to wander. Jane even dared let herself actually kiss Maura's neck just below the ear, which elicited some incoherent response from Maura. Jane moved away just enough to look up to Maura.

"What'd you say?" Jane asked, smiling at how Maura looked down at her. She may have been drunk off her ass, but Jane could tell when someone was turned on, and Maura was the very definition of turned on at the moment.

Maura put a hand on the back of Jane's head and ran her hand through her hair down to Jane's neck. She pulled Jane up to her and pressed her lips against Jane's. It only lasted a few seconds, and there hadn't even been any tongue, but it was the most intense kiss Jane could remember having.

All either could do after they pulled apart was stare breathlessly at each other. Jane licked her lips and went in for another kiss, but Maura pushed her away.

"I think we should get back to your place," Maura said, keeping her hands rather unnecessarily on Jane's shoulders. Jane did not at all mind. She actually welcomed any and all contact with Maura at that point. "This is not the appropriate venue for that kind of thing."

"M'kay," Jane said. She glanced down at the single shot she still had left in front of her. Screw it, Jane thought. She wouldn't mind losing the bet if it meant going back to her apartment and getting more kisses like the last one she had shared with Maura.

"Oh wait," Maura said after standing and picking up her wristlet. "What about Detective Korsak and Detective Frost?"

"Don't worry about them," Jane said as she stood very, very slowly. Then she turned and yelled over the din toward the pool tables where her partner and ex-partner were standing talking to some other cops, completely oblivious of the show that she had just put on with Maura. "Frost! Korsak!"

Both men looked up in the general direction of the table and Jane gestured to the door.

"We're gonna go home now," Jane yelled.

She was pretty sure they both heard her, and at least Korsak understood why they were leaving, because he smiled and gave her the thumbs up. Jane was too drunk to be all that upset about his teasing, but she concealed her own smile and threw him the finger for being such a smartass about it.

Jane found walking in a straight line to be very difficult, and needed Maura to guide her in the right direction because everything looked all jumbled up and blurry. Standing up had definitely got the alcohol flowing through Jane's blood. She was certain she would be sick the next morning, but that was a small price to pay for what she hoped was about to happen.

* * *

Maura felt hopelessly aroused as they left the bar, making her head swim more than the night's four drinks should allow for. It didn't help matters that Jane leaned heavily on her as they walked back to the apartment, creating more physical contact than they'd had all night.

When they reached the apartment, Jane fumbled with her keys, unable to even grip the appropriate key. Jane had more severely impaired motor coordination than Maura had initially suspected. She took the keys from Jane's hand and, after a few failed tries herself, Maura finally got the door open.

Not a second after Maura closed the door and flicked on the light, Jane had her pinned against the wall. Maura felt almost all of Jane's weight against her body. Jane was probably leaning so heavily in part due to her issues with equilibrium at the moment.

Regardless of why Jane had done it, Maura felt incredibly grateful for the rush of hormones that it released. Jane had her arms resting on either side of Maura's head. Maura felt as if Jane's stare, that incredibly intense gaze, might get her to do whatever the detective wanted.

"I really wanna kiss you," Jane whispered right next to Maura's ear. "Is that ok?"

"I was under the impression that I already consented to that," Maura said.

"Yeah," Jane said as she smiled at Maura. "Me too."

Without another word, Jane dipped her head to kiss Maura. Even their heights were compatible, with Jane only an inch or two taller if Maura wore the right heels. Any thoughts of height compatibility flew out of Maura's mind though when she felt Jane's tongue in her mouth. Goodness, she was a good kisser, so soft and gentle, as if she didn't want to frighten Maura. That was actually really good, whatever it was that Jane had just done with her tongue, especially considering Jane's significantly impaired motor function.

Then, as if she hadn't grasped it before, what with Jane's four tequila shots, Maura realized that Jane was extremely intoxicated. She wasn't in the pleasant tipsy place that Maura was in. Jane was hardly capable of walking home under her own power, let alone able make the decision to kiss her best friend.

Maura couldn't do it. She could not take advantage of Jane's intoxication, no matter how much she wanted Jane, how much her body was saying she _needed_ Jane. Maura had little to no experience with such close friendships, but she did know that she cared about Jane more than she had ever cared about any other friend. The situation just felt all wrong. Before Maura's rational mind could correct for the whole feeling thing, she had made her decision.

"Jane," Maura said after pulling away with some difficulty.

"Yeah?" Jane said, taking the opportunity to rest her forehead against Maura's. "Everythin' ok?"

"Can you just, do you think you could move away a little bit," Maura said. She was still pinned tightly against the wall, and if she were to have any hope of carrying on a coherent conversation, she could not be that close to Jane.

"Sorry, didn't meanta hurt ya," Jane said, shifting so that she was not putting so much pressure on Maura.

"Oh, no it's not that at all," Maura said quickly.

"What's up then?" Jane asked. Maura could tell she was trying to be patient, even though that particular trait was not one of Jane Rizzoli's strong suits.

"When you're this close, I am too aroused to form a coherent thought," Maura said.

Jane looked at Maura, a puzzled half-smile on her lips. Maura could not understand why Jane might react in that way. Her own moderate drinking and intense arousal was making it very difficult to determine Jane's current state of mind.

"That's kinda the point," Jane said. "Indt it?"

"No, yes, I know," Maura said as she managed to get herself out of Jane's grasp. She turned to face Jane, who was now leaning against the wall, her brow scrunched up in that adorable confused look she got when reviewing cold cases. "It's just we can't do this."

"What? Why?" Jane asked, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples as if she had a headache.

"Because," Maura said.

Because, why? She had never had any moral qualms about drunken sexual relations in most of her other relationships. Actually, when Maura thought about it, she usually acted as the sexual aggressor. She was hardly shy about what she saw as a perfectly natural human activity. Now though, now she was turning down someone who would likely be a fantastic sexual partner for no logical reason that she could fathom. Why? All because she had a _feeling_? Maura did not act on a mere feeling. That was supposed to be Jane's thing.

"Well, that's really helpful. Thanks, glad we gotit allll cleared up," Jane said, the biting sarcasm still intact even when her ability to speak clearly had long since abandoned her.

"The problem is," Maura said. She tried to look at Jane, but her hands were over her face. "Jane, will you please look at me?"

"I can't," Jane said, taking her hands off of her eyes while keeping her eyes closed. "It's all spinny."

"Oh, I'm sorry, that's my fault. My sudden motion likely threw your already fragile equilibrium off balance, which would cause—

"It's ok," Jane mumbled. "Just, canya tell me why not?"

"You are extremely inebriated," Maura said, as if that might explain her inexplicable change of heart.

"Yeah, and you're extremely hot," Jane said, opening her eyes long enough to rake them over Maura's body and smile mischievously. "I don't think that's good reasons to stop."

"I'm being serious!" Maura said. She was starting to get annoyed both at her inability to explain herself adequately and the tingling sensation that shot through her at Jane's words, a sensation that made it very difficult exercise self control.

"Chill out, me too," Jane said as she slowly made her way to the sofa to lie down. Jane let her arm hang off the side of the sofa as she squinted at Maura.

"I'm sorry, I didn't me to be short with you," Maura said. She had never in her life had such a hard time explaining something, and she didn't think the alcohol was completely to blame. She decided to say it as simply as she possibly could.

"I have feelings for you, and they seem to be more than platonic. I don't want to have a drunken one night stand that, at best you won't remember, and at worst you'll regret."

As she spoke, Maura had made sure to avoid eye contact with Jane by looking straight ahead at the wall behind the sofa. When Jane didn't respond, Maura got impatient and felt the familiar symptoms of anxiety.

"Jane? Did you hear anything I just said?" Maura asked when she realized Jane's eye were closed.

"Mhmm, yeah that's good," Jane mumble without opening her eyes.

"Jane?" Maura repeated. Jane mumbled something incoherent, and Maura realized that the detective was either already asleep, or very close to it. "I'm going to sleep in your bed if that's alright."

"That's good," Jane said as she moved to lie on her side. "Pass the blanket?"

Maura picked up the blanket that was folded over the back of a nearby chair and draped it over Jane's shoulder. She felt a smile creep across her face as she stood and watched Jane pull the blanket tighter and make a content little sigh. Maura thought she could watch Jane sleep like that all night, but even she knew that would be socially inappropriate.

When she was sure Jane had fallen completely asleep, Maura walked as quietly as she could to Jane's bedroom. She snuggled up in the unmade bed and fell asleep almost as quickly as Jane had.

**A/N-Out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on having a little section from the POV of another character? Any thoughts on this chapter?**

**Reviews are the only compensation that a fanfic-er gets. Ya'll have been paying me well. Please keep it up!**


	7. Jane's Hangover

**Don't sue me…**

Jane woke up the next morning and the first thing she saw was the base of the toilet bowl. This could not be good. She realized that she was lying flat on stomach with her cheek pressed against the cool, hard tile floor. She groaned and closed her eyes again, rolling slowly onto her back in an attempt to keep her splitting headache from getting even worse.

As bits and pieces of the evening began to come back to her, Jane groaned out loud covered her hands with her face.

"Oh, I see you're awake."

Jane took her hands off of her face and looked up to see Maura standing in the doorway holding a cup of coffee and looking way too happy.

"Yeah," Jane said. She sat up and rested her back against the wall. Not only did she have a splitting headache, but all of her bones ached, probably from sleeping on a hard tile floor.

"How are you feeling this morning?" Maura asked.

"Like I'm slowly dying," Jane said as she rested her elbow on her knees and held her head in her hands.

"Don't be silly, Jane. If the alcohol consumption was going to kill you, it would have already happened. It is exceedingly rare for a person to die from the effects of a hangover," Maura said as she took a sip from her coffee mug.

Hearing something like that from anyone else would have driven Jane absolutely crazy, but Maura had a way of spouting off information with so much enthusiasm that it was hard to get to angry at her for it. Despite the sarcastic teasing she sometimes gave Maura, Jane actually found it kind of amusing and even adorable.

"That's good," Jane said. She normally would have something fabulously sarcastic to say in response, but she honestly did not want to put in the effort at the moment. "Uh, Maura?"

"Yes, Jane?"

"How did I end up on the bathroom floor?" Jane asked. Though the night before wasn't a complete blackout, there were parts from around the time she took her third shot that were very fuzzy.

"Oh, so you don't remember last night. Yes, I suspected that might be the case," Maura asked as she sat down next to Jane.

She sounded a little disappointed, but not at all surprised by the revelation. How much had Jane drank? And what had happened for Maura to react that way? God, Jane was such an idiot when she drank. She had probably said something idiotic or done something too forward and frightened Maura off.

"So," Maura said to interrupt the silence that had fallen over the room for a second longer than Jane was comfortable with. "Did you experience en bloc or fragmentary blackout?"

"Huh? The regular kind, whichever one that is," Jane responded.

"En bloc is complete and total alcohol related amnesia, whereas fragmentary refers to the condition when you can remember parts of the period of intoxication," Maura said. "I need to know so that I can relate the appropriate information."

"The second one, definitely the second one," Jane said.

"Alright," Maura said. "I am not certain how you managed to get yourself here, because I was sleeping when you called for me."

"Oh, God, I called for you?" Jane groaned, rubbing her temples, trying to alleiviate some of the pressure building to an almost unbearable level.

"Yes, I was sleeping and you called for me, so of course I came in here, and you were vomiting," Maura said. She gave Jane one of her I knew this was going to happen looks. "It wasn't at all surprising given the fact that I warned you—

"Yes, Maura, I remember _that_ part," Jane said.

Maura smiled triumphantly at Jane. Jane did not take 'I told you so's' very well, so Maura was not saying those words exactly, but she was coming pretty damn close.

"Anyway, I came in and you were vomiting. I held your hair back for you. When you had stopped, you begged me for a prescription, for 'a magical no hangover pill' were your exact words," Maura said. She ignored Jane's groan of frustration as it started to come back to her. "I tried to explain that there was no such prescription, but you wouldn't take no for an answer, so I gave you a multivitamin."

"Then you left me on the bathroom floor?"

"You actually insisted on it. You said I should be proud of you because it was more practical for the next time you had to vomit," Maura said. She took another sip of her coffee. "You were very stubborn, so I didn't have much of a choice. I made sure you were in a position that would not cause you to choke on your own vomit and returned to bed."

Well, that must have been incredibly sexy, Jane thought. She wouldn't blame Maura if she never again looked at Jane in the same way. In all of their nights of going out drinking together, Maura had never seen Jane in that state. She put her head in her hands and thought as hard as she could, trying to bring the previous night's events into sharper focus.

"Jane, um, I was just wondering," Maura said, fidgeting with her coffee cup. This must be something really serious if Maura was fidgeting. Fidgeting and saying 'um', those were two things that Maura rarely did. "How much do you remember from last night?"

"I remember the tequila," Jane said. Goddamn tequila. That's what had done this, put that horrible taste in her mouth and made her fall apart at the seams. She knew there had been a reason she hadn't had that stuff in ages. "And the salt. I remember using the salt."

Jane didn't feel the need to elaborate on how she had used the salt. She remembered with surprising clarity having licked Maura's finger twice, and that was obviously what had Maura concerned.

"Do you remember what you did with the salt?" Maura said cautiously, as if she wasn't sure she wanted to ask it or wasn't sure how to phrase it to jog Jane's memory.

"Yeah, I, um, I remember the first three shots pretty well," Jane said. She smiled shyly at Maura then looked down at her hands. Jane didn't like coming right out with her feelings, but she knew Maura needed more obvious hints than most people.

"What about the fourth one, can you remember that?" Maura asked. "Do you remember how you took that shot?"

Jane scrunched up her nose and thought long and hard. Clearly, Maura was trying to pull out some memory from the back of Jane's mind, something important. She couldn't remember what though, besides the finger licking there was nothing…Wait, Jane thought, yes there was, there was a whole shit ton of information that came flooding back.

"Oh, yeah. Kind of a crazy night, huh?" Jane said quietly.

She tried to sound calm for Maura's sake even though she was freaking out at having kissed Maura for the first time and needing to be reminded of it later. That had not been what Jane was hoping for at the start of the night. She wasn't sure what she had hoped to accomplish, but it wasn't that. God, she could be such a dumbass sometimes.

"It was rather out of the ordinary," Maura said. She took another long drink from her mug of coffee.

Despite the blasé tone that Maura attempted to put on, Jane noticed that she continued to fidget with the hem of her blouse. She felt this urge to protect Maura, to keep her from ever being hurt. It seemed, at the very least, that Maura was painfully confused about the kiss they had shared, but wasn't equipped with the social skills to understand how to go about the new experience.

For lack of anything better to say, Jane put a hand over Maura's to reassure her. Maura looked up at Jane. She just seemed like such a lost little kid. It broke Jane's heart that her own drunken antics were, by and large, responsible for Maura's confusion.

"Are we ok, Jane?" Maura asked quietly.

"Of course," Jane said quickly taking Maura's hand in both of hers. "We're great. I mean, I still feel like shit but us, we're great."

"Well, Jane, I can't say I have a lot of sympathy," Maura said with a grin of amusement, the one Jane had been aiming for. "You did that to yourself."

"I know, I know," Jane groaned. She suddenly realized how incredibly parched she was. "Can I have a sip of coffee anyway?"

"No," Maura said, wrapping both of her hands around her mug and pulling it way from Jane's grasp. "First of all, it's mine. Also, you need to drink water before having any coffee this morning. Coffee will only cause more severe dehydration. I poured you a cup last night and left it by the sink."

Jane groaned at the unnecessary coffee deprivation and crawled over the sink to get the water before crawling back to her spot and taking a few large gulps. Nope, it was doing absolutely nothing. She finished the rest of the sizeable glass in a few more gulps.

"Can I have my coffee now, _mom_?" Jane asked as she held out the empty cup for Maura to see.

Maura sighed and shook her head at Jane, but she laughed softly and got up.

"If you must," Maura said. "I have a pot on in the kitchen."

* * *

Maura had absolutely no idea how to read Jane this morning. All subconscious cues Maura picked up only indicated that Jane was in pain. Any other, more subtle clues were lost on Maura.

Jane was simply one of the most maddeningly vague, evasive, and closed off people that she knew. She had said they were 'great,' which was a relief to hear, but Maura had no idea what that meant. Did it mean that they were returning to their previous arrangement as excessively flirty friends with a lot of sexual chemistry? Did it mean that they might be entering into a sexual relationship? Was Jane aware of what Maura had revealed the previous night?

Maura really needed to teach Jane how to be more precise and descriptive with her language. This, however, was not the moment for such a lesson. First of all, Jane would probably be unreceptive to the idea in her current condition. Second, Maura did not want to push Jane too hard for fear of pushing her away and further into her closed off space.

"Mm, I love coffee," Jane said as she hunched over the table top and held her coffee mug close.

Dark circles were under Jane's eyes, her hair was frizzy and disheveled, and she still wore her wrinkled up work clothed from the day before. Still, Maura somehow found herself unable to _not_ look at Jane. These feeling, these impulses, they defied Maura's understanding of traditional mating behavior. She didn't understand it, and that absolutely frustrated Maura Isles like nothing else.

"Would you like some more sugar?" Maura asked. She knew, given the offer, Jane rarely turned down more sugar in her coffee and Maura needed something to do.

"What kind of question is that?" Jane said as she held out her coffee cup. Maura scooped a spoonful out of Jane's nearly empty sugar jar and stirred it into Jane's drink. "Thank you mamam. I'll be sure to tip you generously."

"Though unnecessary that would be very much appreciated," Maura said. She ran her finger over her coffee mug. Usually she finished drinking her coffee well before it had a chance to cool off, but she had been distracted during their conversation in the bathroom. She looked up from her coffee to see Jane looking at her with that half smile, apparently thinking about something pleasant. "What?"

"Nothing," Jane said, looking away and taking another sip of her coffee. "I was just thinkin' of what I could do for you. You know, for taking care of me last night."

"Don't worry about it. I didn't have a choice about taking care of you last night," Maura said.

"And why might that be?" Jane asked.

"When I became a medical doctor, I implicitly agreed to the Hippocratic Oath," Maura said.

This was one of those half truths that Maura occasionally took advantage of. She _was_ bound by that oath. Even if she hadn't been a doctor and compelled by those rules though, Maura still would have taken care of Jane willingly. On top of that, no doctor was ever required to sit with a person while they vomited, as Maura had done for Jane.

"The hippo, what?" Jane asked, squinting her eyes and rubbing her temples. Maura knew that would do very little to alleviate the kind of headache that Jane had, but she didn't say anything.

"Hippocratic oath. It states, in part, that I pledge to apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures that are required. You required treatment and I gave it to you," Maura explained.

"Yeah, of course. That's what I thought," Jane said. Maura was pretty sure that Jane was being sarcastic, mostly because that was often a safe assumption if Jane said something that made little sense. "Thanks anyway though for putting up with me last night."

"It was my pleasure," Maura said. Oh, no a little too much enthusiasm there for the situation because now Jane was looking at her and appeared confused.

"Anyway," Jane said, wincing as she rose from her chair to get another cup of coffee. "You want to go out for dinner on me to make up for it?"

"That really isn't necessary," Maura said. "I honestly don't mind."

"I want to, Maura," Jane said. Her face was set and Maura knew that Jane would not give up until she got the answer she wanted.

"If you insist, but really—

"I do insist," Jane said. She stood, rested her hands on the counter and faced Maura.

"Jane, you're in no shape to do anything today," Maura said. "The only thing that you should do today is rest."

"Fine," Jane said, running a hand through her hair. She scrunched up her nose, the way she did when she hated to admit that Maura was right. "I'll take you out on Monday. But if I'm going to be on bed rest, you are not going to leave me here. You look tired too."

Maura could see no reason why she needed to stay over just so that Jane could sleep off her hangover. She determined that it must be a ruse on Jane's part for them to spend more time together. Maura did not at all mind the idea, and actually welcomed the thought of sleeping in Jane's bed, with Jane this time.

"That sounds fair," Maura said. She drained the last of her coffee and put her cup back on the counter.

Jane also quickly finished the rest of her coffee. She looked up from her cup and smiled as if she had scored a small victory. Yes, this had definitely been a ruse, and Jane was clearly pleased that it had worked.

Jane's smile quickly turned into something that more closely resembled a grimace of pain. She rested her head in her hands and groaned something that Maura couldn't quite understand.

"What was that?"

"I hate tequila," Jane said, lifting her head enough to see Maura. "Why does it hurt so bad?"

"You're probably dehydrated. Contrary to popular opinion, coffee does not cure hangovers, and can even cause more severe dehydration in some cases," Maura said.

Maura could not understand for the life of her why Jane had lifted her head and stared for a moment before speaking. Jane _had_ asked for an explanation after all. She couldn't fault Maura for providing one.

"I think I'll go to bed now," Jane said flatly. She got up to get herself a tall glass of water, then turned around and addressed Maura. "You wanna join?"

"I only got five to six hours of sleep last night if we are taking into consideration the time I spent caring for you, so I do need about two more hours to reach my ideal sleep levels," Maura said.

She wasn't actually at all tired, but Maura needed a good, clear motive to hop into bed with Jane. Even though they had slept in the same bed a number of times, this felt different. Jane's unclear intentions made Maura very uneasy, so she needed to add some clarity.

"M'kay," Jane said as she continued towards the bedroom.

Usually Jane acted much more impatient and sarcastic with Maura's 'Talking Google' moments, Maura was sure of it. It must be the hangover sapping all of Jane's mental and physical energy. Yes, that was definitely it.

When they reached the bedroom, Jane pulled off her wrinkled work pants and shirt to reveal her underwear and bra. Well, perhaps Maura had made a grave error in determining Jane's motive if she had already started to disrobe.

"Jane, what are you doing?" Maura asked. The anxiety must have been obvious in her voice and mannerisms because Jane just looked up at Maura and laughed as she pulled off her socks.

"Relax, Maura. I'm not setting off an atomic bomb or anything," Jane said as she moved over to her dresser. "You were the one who complained about me wearing my clothes to bed."

Maura felt more than a little bit aroused as she watched those long, tanned, very _bare_ legs, stride across the room. Jane couldn't possibly know what she was doing to Maura at the moment, how very much she wanted to reach out and touch that beautiful skin, feel her gorgeous musculature.

"Maura, did you hear me?" Jane asked. She was clearly repeating herself, but Jane appeared much less annoyed than she would normally be. She actually looked, what was that? Was Jane pleased that she had distracted Maura with this glimpse of skin?

"What was that?" Maura asked, forcing herself to look at Jane's face. That wasn't much better, but at least her arousal wouldn't be quite so obvious.

"You want to change too?" Jane said, moving closer to Maura as she held out a pair of very unfashionable, but comfortable looking gray shorts and a white tshirt. "I can't imagine that fancy outfit is very comfortable to sleep in."

Jane, of course, was right. The fitted jeans that she had worn to get Jane's attention the previous evening were not only uncomfortable, but impractical sleepwear.

"Fine," Maura said after a moment's hesitation, reaching out and snatching the outfit from Jane.

Jane smiled another one of those victory smiles, but this time Maura couldn't pinpoint how Jane had been victorious. The smile only lasted a second before Jane was pulling on her own sleepwear.

Maura suddenly became uncharacteristically shy about changing in front of Jane. She swallowed and decided to treat the moment as any other time she changed into her pajamas. Just act as if no one else was present and change as efficiently as possible.

Maura unzipped her pants and tried to pull them down quickly, but they were tighter than she had remembered. She was instead forced to shimmy them off slowly. The whole time she could feel Jane's eyes on her. Though she was intent on the task at hand, Maura risked a glance in Jane's direction. Jane was biting her lower lip and obviously failing in an effort to curb signs of arousal while never once taking her eyes off of Maura.

Maura quickly looked away. She feared making eye contact any longer than that would cause her to do something incredibly rash and ill-conceived. So she continued to pull her jeans off bit by bit until she stumbled out of them in probably the unsexiest way possible. When Maura had pulled the oversized cotton shorts up and put the shirt on, Jane grinned and patted the spot next to her.

Maura went over and climbed into Jane's bed. It was actually quite comfortable considering the relatively low thread count of Jane's sheets. Maura made sure to stay on her side of the bed as she got snuggled under the covers.

"Watcha doin' all the way over there?" Jane asked as she reached over to the nightstand and got an Aleve. She swallowed the pill and continued. "I'm not contagious or anything. You can come closer."

Maura scooted over on the bed so that she was closer to the middle, while still giving Jane enough space to stretch out. Jane settled on her side and Maura was shocked to feel Jane's arm draped over her stomach as the detective cuddled closer. When she got over the shock and almost overwhelming arousal of feeling Jane so close, Maura relaxed into it. She felt a smile sneak across her lips without even realizing it.

"I never realized you were a cuddler," Maura said softly without moving or opening her eyes.

"Not usually," Jane murmured as she moved closer so that their legs touched ever so slightly.

Those two words and that skin on skin contact should have sent Maura's mind on a thorough examination of the meaning Jane's behavior, but they didn't. She simply felt comfortable. Maura decided that she could over think Jane's words later. Now she would just enjoy the moment.

**A/N-Can ya'll to Jane's morning after experience or Maura's confusion about the state of a relationship? Anything in here that you particularly liked?**

**Reviews are like a box of chocolates. I gobble them all up. Give me some chocolates? **


	8. A Minor Muscle Strain

**A/N-I am just a poor college girl who spends her time dreaming up romances between two unreasonably good looking and unreasonably gay 'straight' ladies from a fictional world that doesn't belong to me….**

Jane arrived at the station around 8 o'clock on Monday morning in a better mood than when Monday usually rolled around. She had managed to get a tray of coffees, find a decent parking spot and arrive in the office on time, all minor miracles in thier own right. On top of that she got to see Maura for the first time since Saturday afternoon when Maura had left because she needed to check on Bass. Jane found it kind of silly. The thing barely moved and when it did, it was hardly raising hell. Maura had insisted though, so off she went to take care of her turtle-tortoise thing.

And now Jane eagerly anticipated being able to visit the morgue to visit the ME. Yes, eager. Despite herself and her own efforts to remain indifferent, Jane could not help feeling a little excited at seeing Maura again. She was a detective goddamnit, Jane ought to be able to play it cool, at least outwardly.

"Hey, Janie," Korsak said, looking up from his computer screen where Jane could see a video called 'world's cutest cat' loading. "Got my coffee right this time?"

"Morning to you too," Jane said as she put a cup on korsak's desk. "Yeah, I remembered three sugars for you."

"Did you," Frost started before Jane placed a cup on his desk too.

"Yes, I did. Seriously, you two need to stop with this pissing match you have going," Jane said. She took a sip of her own coffee then added. "It's really unattractive."

"I wasn't aware you looked at our kind in that way, Jane," Frost said, and Jane saw Korsak snicker at the innuendo. Damn it, they probably saw way more than she had realized at the bar.

"What the hell is that suppose to mean?" Jane snapped. She found that if she got snippy enough with Frost, he usually backed off. Korsak, however, tended to become more amused than intimidated.

"Relax, Jane. He just meant that we don't really seem to be your type," Korsak said as he minimized the video to give the impression that he might actually be working on something important. "Your type seems a little more petite and, uh, fashionable. Wouldn't you say, Frost?"

Frost, who was bent over his paperwork in an effort to avoid Jane's wrath, glanced up to smile at Korsak and looked back down before Jane could muster her best glare.

Shit. They definitely knew something and they were thoroughly enjoying holding it over her. Jane, however, would not give them satisfaction.

"I don't have a clue what you're talking about," Jane said as she rose from her chair. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm actually going to do my _job_ and get the autopsy report from the Freeman case."

Jane turned quickly and began heading out of the office and away from Korsak and Frost's cryptic, good natured teasing. She could give it right back if she wanted to, but Jane actually did need the Freeman report to close out what looked like a straightforward suicide. She also really wanted to see Maura if for no other reason than to gauge Maura's mindset. She still was not sure exactly how their relationship changed after the events of Friday night.

"Janie!" Korsak called after her just as she was about to leave the bullpen.

"What?" Jane demanded as she turned around and crossed her arms.

"In an awfully big rush, aren't you? Wouldn't want to forget Maura's special order coffee," Korsak said holding out the coffee and smiling too broadly for Jane's liking.

"Thanks," Jane said as she snatched the tray from her ex-partner and left the room.

When Jane arrived in the morgue, Maura sat at her 'work desk' bent over an autopsy report as she wrote out meticulous notes. Jane stood in the doorway for a moment and watched Maura. She could probably stand there for an hour without Maura noticing. She got that absorbed in her work. Jane loved that about Maura, that she had so much passion for her job, for everything really.

Jane teased Maura about her enthusiastic 'google mouth' but a part of Jane wished she still had Maura's sincere enthusiasm for exploring the world. It was refreshing to be around someone like that after spending so much time around hardened, cynical cops like herself.

Then there was the fact that Maura was absolutely gorgeous and she didn't even know it. That made Maura's company even more enjoyable. Jane hated to admit it, but that was one of the reasons she had agreed to run the marathon with Maura. Being able to look at Maura made the workout that much better, and the runner's high didn't suck either.

"Hello, Jane," Maura said when looked up and closed the folder in front of her.

"Hey," Jane said. She blinked once to refocus her attention and entered the room to put the coffee tray with the two coffees down. "I got you coffee. Just the way you like it."

"Well, thank you. That was very thoughtful," Maura said. She took a sip of the coffee and squinted at Jane for a moment, the way she did when she was about to make a diagnosis. "Are you feeling alright today?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Jane said, shifting uncomfortable from one foot to another as Maura continued to analyze her. "Why? Do you think I have some kind of weird disease or something?"

"Oh, no, nothing of the sort," Maura said, getting up and circling around so that she was standing behind Jane.

"Um, you want to tell me what you're looking for then," Jane said without moving from her spot. She would normally be a little unnerved, but now Maura was lightly tracing her fingers over Jane's neck and shoulders, then slowly down her sides to Jane's lower back. There was no way that Jane would be moving away from something like that.

"Yes, just as I suspected," Maura muttered as much to herself as to Jane as she pulled her hand away.

Jane immediately spun around to face Maura, frustrated as much by the loss of contact as she was by Maura's cryptic diagnosis.

"What? What did you suspect?" Jane demanded.

"Have you been experiencing back or neck pain recently?" Maura asked.

"Yeah, since Friday night," Jane said. "So what?"

"You have a mild muscle strain that is causing the rest of your back and neck muscles to overcompensate," Maura said as she returned to sit in her chair. "It's very treatable."

"Well?" Jane said when Maura did not immediately elaborate. "Care to tell me how?"

"Oh, just take acetaminophen or similar pain relievers, and your body will eventually heal," Maura said. She took a long drink of her coffee and then set it down and smiled at Jane. "Or I could relieve some of the tension for you now ."

There, there it was. Maura could have said that without being flirty at all, but she couldn't seem to help herself. With anyone else, Jane would assume it was deliberate, but Maura worked in strange, unpredictable ways. Jane decided to play along as if Maura had intended to flirt. Someone was going to have to take some kind of risk here.

"How might you do that?" Jane asked as she put her coffee down and moved closer to Maura.

"First, I'll need you to lie down flat on your stomach," Maura said, and Jane could have sworn she'd seen Maura give her the once over as if she were considering the indecent things she could do to with Jane on her stomach.

"Where would you like me, Doctor Isles?" Jane asked. She was having a hard time focusing with the wonderfully dirty thoughts flooding her head as she imagined Maura taking advantage of her.

"Right there."

Maura smiled and nodded her head in the direction of the autopsy table. Jane looked in that direction for a second before realizing what Maura meant.

"What? You mean the dead table? No, no way," Jane said, wrinkling her nose as she looked at the slab. There was absolutely nothing sexy or even remotely appealing about lying face down on the dead table. "No way am I lying face down on that thing."

"Think of it logically, Jane," Maura said. "That table has fewer germs and bacteria than the bathroom floor that you slept on. I also disinfected it thoroughly after this morning's autopsy."

"Gee, that makes me feel _so_ much better," Jane said.

"That's good. It should, because I am very thorough," Maura said in all seriousness.

"I'm not doing it. There is no way in hell I am lying on the dead table unless I'm actually, you know, dead," Jane said.

Jane knew she had done something wrong when Maura's face immediately shifted from amused and mildly frustrated to dead serious.

"Jane, don't joke about those kinds of things," Maura said. She turned to look down at the report in front of her so that Jane couldn't see her face very well. "I will understand if you don't want to lie on the 'dead table' as you put it, but please don't talk like that."

"Okay, alright, fine, I won't," Jane said quickly as she reached out and put a hand on Maura's arm. After all of Jane's close calls, Maura was clearly upset by the thought of Jane on her table, and Jane did not want to make Maura cry again. Still, she could not lie on the dead table. Jane may have been whipped, but a woman has to draw the line somewhere. "Can you fix my back if I'm sitting in a chair?"

"Well, that would not be the optimal position," Maura said as she squinted her eyes at Jane and put a finger on her chin. "But perhaps I might be able to improvise."

"Maura Isles might improvise? I'm shocked," Jane said with mock horror.

"Some situations necessitate improvisation," Maura said as she rose from her chair and gestured to it. "Here, sit down and rest your head on the desk."

Jane sat down in Maura's stool, the one she used when she needed to get work done because it kept her more alert that the comfortable office chairs. She looked hesitantly up at Maura. Was she going to try to pull some kind of trick? That wasn't really Maura's style, but she had been upset by Jane's remark about being dead.

"Go ahead," Maura said, gesturing to the desk. "Before I change my mind."

Jane did as she was told and rested her head on the desk with her arms stretched out in front of her. As she did, Jane felt a tightening in her lower back that had never quite gone away since her night spent on the bathroom floor.

"I will start with your neck muscles and move gradually down towards the problem area in an effort to release the tension that you appear to be carrying," Maura said. "Are you ready?"

Jane nodded. A moment later, she felt Maura's cool fingers rubbing her neck, kneading at the tense muscle. Maura had definitely done this before. She knew just the right spot to put pressure on. She moved out to Jane shoulders and rubbed them. That felt really good, so good that Jane shivered when Maura moved lower down her back. She pressed down and rubbed her fingers up and down Jane's spine.

"How does that feel?" Maura asked. Her voice was quiet and soothing, just above a whisper.

"Mm, you're really good at that," Jane said. If she wasn't so turned on thinking about those wonderful hands and how skillfully Maura used them, Jane might have fallen asleep as she felt all the tension drain out of her muscles. "Keep going."

"I'm going to move lower now," Maura said. She knelt down so that she could reach Jane's lower back. Maura's hands now rubbed just above Jane's pants. "I might need to get under your shirt to work on the problem area. For better access, of course."

"Yeah, go for it," Jane mumbled. She certainly wasn't going to turn down Maura if she wanted to cop a feel.

Jane was not prepared for how good that would feel though. Maura's hands slipped up under Jane's shirt and the doctor skillfully rubbed not just the lower back. She slowly, ever so slowly, ran her hands up a few inches and back down. Jane could not help but let out a sigh as Maura stopped to rub a particularly sensitive spot.

"God, Maura, that's really good," Jane said. She was fully aware of how sexual it sounded. To be honest, though, Jane felt like she was in kind of a sexual situation, what with the sensual massage and the Maura flirting, then the Maura whispering. Jane had experienced actual sex that was less sensual.

Jane spun around in her chair unannounced. She was ready to kiss Maura, ready to lie on that godforsaken dead table if that's what it took to get Maura. Jane wanted Maura. It seemed impossible, but she wanted Maura more than she had ever wanted her before.

When she looked at Maura though, Jane didn't see what she was hoping for. Maura appeared startled as she stood up and drew away from Jane at the sudden motion. At that point in their 'conversation' Jane felt certain that Maura wanted the same thing, but Maura looked hesitant, and Jane would not screw it up by being too aggressive. Maura needed gentleness and patience and Jane would give that to her.

"I, um, I need, the report, it's the, the," Jane stammered. Being so turned on by Maura's massage did terrible things to her ability to speak and think. "The Freeman report. Yeah, that's what I came here for."

"Oh, yes, of course," Maura said, looking around the morgue as if the file might be in one of her freezers when in fact she kept all recent files stacked neatly on her desk. She finally reached for the file she had just finished when Jane arrived. "I just completed the report and I can conclusively say that the cause of death is most likely a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head."

"Great," Jane said, opening the folder and making a show of reading Maura's meticulous notes on what Jane had called a textbook case of suicide when the body was first discovered. "I'll go finish up that report now. Thanks."

"You're welcome," Maura said as she sat down at her desk and tried to look busy to avoid eye contact.

"Hey," Jane said as she reached out to touch Maura's hand. She held it for a second and Maura looked up at Jane. "I'm really looking forward to dinner tonight."

"Me too," Maura said, immediately brightening at Jane's reassurance.

Before she or Maura could say or do anything else, Jane turned and hurried out of the morgue. She had plans tonight, so she would need to finish her work on time. After all, a date with Maura Isles required some preparation.

* * *

Maura stood at the foot of her bed staring at three very different, very expensive outfits. She needed to figure out which ensemble would work best for her evening with Jane. She called an evening to herself, even though it felt much more like a date, especially after the moment she had shared. Maura wished it had been more of a moment. Instead, she had instinctively moved away from the sudden motion and the moment passed.

Back to the outfits, Maura had to focus on making an informed decision. She was on a schedule. There was the standard little black dress. The stitching was impeccably done, but it was rather plain looking. Then there was the more detailed, elaborate blouse and pencil skirt. The skirt had a pattern in fairly neutral, muted colors and the shirt was white with a plunging neckline and fabulous details. The third outfit was a silk blouse and black pants, similar to something she might wear to work if she knew there would be a lot of walking around because it was comfortable and practical.

It really all depended on where they were going and of course Jane refused to let Maura in on that particular detail. Maura hated guessing. No, she refused to guess under any circumstances. That must be why Jane was doing this. She was forcing Maura to guess by saying only to dress "like usual." The nuances of Maura's wardrobe might have been lost on Jane, but Maura dressed quite differently from day to day, so that advice proved rather useless.

Jane always perceived Maura as dressing for the runway, so Maura thought the most logical choice would be the fanciest of all the outfits. She decided on the pencil skirt and the shirt with the plunging neckline. Not only was it fancy by Jane's standards, it also showed a moderate amount of skin, enticing but not too obvious.

Maura spent the next hour picking out jewelry, reapplying makeup and doing all of her pre-date rituals. Even if this was not a date, it was best to be prepared for that very plausible possibility.

Maura was prepared to wait until a few minutes past seven, because Jane always showed up, as she put, it 'fashionably late.' She was surprised, however, when the doorbell rang at exactly seven o'clock.

When Maura opened the door she was even more surprised. It was Jane. Jane in a dress. More specifically, it was Jane in the little black dress she had found so stunning on Jane during one of their early morgue drinking sessions.

This would definitely be a very interesting 'evening'.

**A/N-Feel free to call me a mean old tease. There is some legit rizzles action in the very near future though. The teasing can only go on for so long before I have an UST related death on my hands and I'm really not sure I could live with myself after that. :) ****So, yes, these chapters aren't for nothing. Hope you like it anyway. **

**Reviews are…yeah, no, I'm not thinking of anything clever. Just that I like reviews and they make me write with so much more enthusiasm because I know a bunch of people actually care about what I have to write. Also, I respond to every review and PM, so if you have a question or suggestion, I will eventually respond. If I haven't responded to a review, it's because I accidentally skipped it, not because I ignored it. Thanks for the support so far. Keep it up!**


	9. Dinner at the Grotto

**A/N-A looong chapter to make up for the longish wait…**

Jane hated heels, she really did. They were uncomfortable and difficult to walk in and just plain impractical, and she was surprised that Maura, with her hyper rational mind, hadn't figured that out yet. Still, here Jane was walking as gracefully as possible in a pair of heels and a dress down the short walkway to Maura's door.

Why? Because Maura always told Jane she should dress up and Maura had told her she looked gorgeous in this outfit. Besides, Jane saw the way Maura got so driven to distraction by Jane's legs when they were changing. She might as well give the woman another peek if it would help things along.

It apparently worked, because when Maura opened the door, she looked Jane up and down twice before speaking. When she did, Maura wasn't her usual wordy self.

"You're wearing a dress," Maura said, remaining in the same spot. She looked Jane in the eyes, but Jane could tell that it was the forced eye contact that Maura had used in the bedroom on Saturday morning.

Even though Jane was getting the attention she had hoped for from Maura, she still felt a little uncomfortable with being the focus of so much staring.

"Yeah, and you're wearing a skirt," Jane said defensively, gesturing to what looked like a new outfit. She certainly approved of the skirt, which was cut just above the knee and the shirt that dipped down to accentuate some of Maura's best assets. "Let's not make it a supreme court case."

"I'm not sure if there is any legal standing for…oh I understand. You must know studies show that sarcasm is often a defense mechanism when a person feels insecure or vulnerable," Maura said.

Jane raised her eyebrows and folded her arms in a pose that probably wasn't nearly as intimidating with heels and a dress in place of her gun and badge.

"You look wonderful though," Maura said sincerely.

"Thanks, you look great too," Jane said. She looked down at her feet and those ridiculous heels that were already getting uncomfortable. "We should get going. Don't want to miss our reservation."

"Oh, yes, of course," Maura said. She turned around to grab her purse from a side table by the door. "Where are we going?"

"You'll see," Jane said as she began walking to the car.

"Wait, no, that's not fair," Maura said as she hurried after Jane. "We have technically started the evening, so it wouldn't be ruining the surprise."

Jane and Maura had reached the car. They both got in and Jane pulled out of the driveway and drove back towards the city. Jane remained silent to see how long it would take Maura to try a different tactic or protest again about the unfairness of her having to guess on a wardrobe decision.

"This would be like me knowing the Red Sox score and refusing to tell you," Maura said.

"No, it's not like that at all," Jane said as she merged onto the Mass Pike. "Because I wouldn't want you to tell me the Sox score. I'd want to find out for myself."

"You know what I mean, Jane. It's cruel," Maura protested. "Just tell me. We're probably almost there if it's in the city."

"You really can't stand not knowing something, can you?" Jane said.

She looked sideways at Maura and Maura's eyebrows were scrunched up and her lips were pursed. She was actually really stressed out. It was such a small thing, and Maura still needed to find absolute clarity in every situation.

"Not really," Maura said. She reached out and touched Jane's knee. God, that woman really knew how to get exactly what she wanted. It didn't help matters that Maura already had Jane whipped. "Please, just tell me."

"Alright. I'll tell you about the restaurant, but not what it's called," Jane said. It was really pointless to not reveal the name, but Jane, being the stubborn type, wanted to be able to hold back something. "They make this Italian food that I hear is really good. It's a pretty fancy place right on Bowdoin."

"I see," Maura said. She simply nodded and smiled as she turned to look at Jane for a long moment."And you got all dressed up for this evening?"

"Yeah, so?" Jane said. She was getting kind of annoyed at that look that Maura was giving her, that smug look that she gave when she had things all figured out. "It's sort of a get dressed up kind of place."

"You got dressed up and decided to take me to a fancy restaurant," Maura said, as if her revelation became even clearer.

"Yup," Jane said as she nodded and gripped the steering wheel tighter.

She was in Boston traffic now, she really needed to focus her attention and Maura's cryptic probing and encouraging touches were not helping matters. Maura seemed to take the hint and remained quiet for the rest of the ride although that self satisfied grin stayed in place until Jane found a spot on the street right in front of the restaurant.

"Here we are," Jane said as she unbuckled. "The Grotto."

* * *

Maura got out of the car and walked around to where Jane stood. It took Maura a moment to see the entrance, since the restaurant was partly subterranean, with only a few windows above ground. She had never seen the place before, probably because it was so inconspicuous.

She walked ahead of Jane down the stairs that led right from the street into the dimly lit restaurant. Jane was right, this was a fairly fancy place, especially by Jane's standards. Fancy, and quite romantic. The restaurant was lit by small candles on each table along with dimmed lights along the walls. Almost all of the tables had either two or four place settings. The brick walls lined with paintings from local artists gave the place a cozy feel that Maura usually found lacking in the uber expensive gourmet restaurants that her parents use to take her to.

Even Maura Isles could now say without a doubt that this was a date. Maura began to suspect as much in the car, but Jane showed indications of agitation when Maura came close to guessing as much out loud.

All the signs were there though. They had both dressed to impress and arouse the other. Jane brought Maura to a nice, romantic restaurant, and she had insisted on paying. Then there was the more abstract, but ever present feeling that the two of them might, at any moment, throw all caution to the wind and start undressing each other.

A young blonde hostess led Jane and Maura to a table in the corner of the restaurant after confirming Jane's reservation. She handed them each a one page menu and left them to peruse the various menu items.

"This place is really very nice, Jane," Maura said as she looked over the menu.

"Yeah, you know, it's not as fancy as some of the other restaurants I looked at, but I didn't want to embarrass myself," Jane said. "So I went for a mix. Italian for me and fancy for you."

"It's perfect," Maura said. It was a very good choice on Jane's part; Maura saw at least three unique dishes that she wanted to try. "So what do you think you want to get. The gnocchi?"

"Mmm, nope. Place like this might do something weird to the gnocchi. I think I'm going for the garlic soup then spaghetti and meatball with the sauce. I guess the pasta here is homemade," Jane said as she put her menu aside to look across the table at Maura. "What about you?"

"For the primi, I was considering the grilled calamari and as my secondi the butter poached lobster sounds excellent," Maura said as she too put aside her menu. She could have spent more time making the menu decision. If this was a date though, the best thing would be to spend time looking at Jane, her date, rather than the menu.

Jane smiled at Maura and said nothing.

"What? Is there something wrong?" Maura asked. Perhaps maybe she had misread some social cue or done something embarrassing. It was difficult to know.

"No, not at all," Jane said as she reached up and tucked a curl behind her ear. "It's just, I looked up the menu earlier and I guessed you would get exactly that."

"Well, there is a good statistical probability that you would guess my choice on the secondi and primi independently given the choice we have here," Maura said as she scanned the list and made some quick calculations. "But guessing both of them correctly is only a one in ninety chance or just over 1.1%. I suppose that is quite impressive."

"And that," Jane said after taking a sip of her water and placing it back down. "Was quite impressive."

"It was just simple arithmetic," Maura said, though she couldn't help but smile at Jane's compliment. "How did you know?"

Jane shrugged. "I know you really well, I guess," she said. There was a moment of silence in which they made eye contact that felt as though it must be communicating something more than Maura could comprehend. "I also picked the ones that sounded fanciest."

Maura couldn't help but chuckle at Jane's reasoning. She wasn't sure how much of that was true and how much of it was an effort to break the heavy silence. Jane did have a tendency to use humor when she felt uncomfortable or insecure, but it was entirely plausible that she had looked for the fanciest sounding menu items. It was just so Jane to do something like that.

"I bet I can decide what you're having for dessert," Maura said.

"How do you even know I'll want dessert?" Jane asked. "I might be full by then."

"Jane, the portions at this type of restaurant are not nearly as generous as your mother's portions. Trust me, you'll be hungry. Besides, it comes as part of the prix fixe," Maura said as she looked over the menu to finalize her dessert choice for Jane.

"You mean it comes as part of the whole deal?" Jane said.

"Yes, it does. Now do you want to finalize your dessert choice?"

Jane looked over the menu for a few moments before flipping it over and putting it down in front of her.

"M'kay, guess away," Jane said. "I promise I won't lie if you guess right."

"I would hope so," Maura said. "Now, I believe, based on my past experiences dining with you that you will be most likely to choose the…melting chocolate cake with ice cream."

Jane scrunched her nose up and shook her head slowly back and forth before Maura's steady eye contact finally got her to reveal the truth. It always worked on Jane, that pleading, innocent look. It had proven to be one of the few things in life that was 100% effective and efficient.

"Fine, alright, yeah, that was what I wanted the second I saw the menu," Jane admitted. "Not a really hard guess though. I don't even know what some of this stuff is. Lemon panna cotta? Really?"

Maura laughed and shook her head. People called Maura naïve, but in some things, Jane acted like more of a little kid than Maura had ever been.

"What do I win?" Maura asked.

She hoped such a question might subtly steer the conversation in the right direction, specifically the overtly flirty direction. Attempts at subtlety, however, were dangerous territory for Maura. She either was too subtle or, more frequently, said something that lacked any and all subtlety.

Jane raised her eyebrows and took a sip of her water before responding. Apparently, she knew exactly what Maura was driving at because she began to blush. Jane, as always though, recovered quickly.

"What would you like?" she asked, just as suggestively as Maura had posed her question.

There were a number of different ways that Maura could play this. She could say something overtly sexual, though it seemed kind of an odd way to broach the subject. She could suggest something entirely platonic, though that would send the wrong message. Or she could go somewhere in between and make an innuendo of something that appeared to be platonic. That would require some use of slang, but Maura thought she could swing it.

"Next time we eat out," Maura said as she placed down her own glass of water. "I get to decide when and where."

Maura tried to keep a straight face as she watched Jane flounder for the right response. She seemed torn between acknowledging the innuendo and letting it pass.

"What, did you just?" Jane asked before trailing off.

Maura tilted her head to the side and smiled thinly. "Did I what, Jane?"

Jane leaned back in her chair and exhaled. She put a hand through her hair and smiled at Maura. Then she shook her head and leaned forward with her elbows on the table so that she was closer to Maura than they had been since they sat down.

"You're something else. You know that?" Jane said.

Maura smiled and looked down at her hands. It was her turn to blush. No one had ever said that and meant it as a good thing, as Jane had. She wasn't sure what to do with the new compliment. Maura was saved from having to respond when the waiter came over to take their order.

* * *

Either Maura had been drinking before Jane arrived or she was getting very bold. The woman didn't even know with her 100% certainty rule that Jane had meant this to be sort of a date and here she was making very obvious sexual innuendos. Jane wasn't complaining, not at all. She was just a little confused. Jane wondered if maybe she should start treating this like the date that it clearly was.

She decided to try a few subtle things that she usually did when out on a first date to show that she was interested. Jane leaned forward to listen closely when Maura started talking about the history of grottos, and a few times Jane touched Maura's hand when she was about to say something. Maura, to Jane's delight, did not seem taken aback or anxious, rather she seemed to become more at ease.

So Maura did know Jane had planned this as a date. That could make things a whole lot easier. When the dessert came, Jane decided to do something that she only did if she was really interested in her date.

"Mmm, that looks really good," Jane said when she saw Maura's chocolate, vanilla and caramel ice cream sampler set down on the table. "I'll let you taste mine if you let me taste yours."

Maura covered her face with a napkin as she pretended to wipe her mouth even though Jane knew she smiled and blushed at the innuendo. Yeah, Maura, Jane thought, two can play at that game.

"Yours does look delicious," Maura said as she eyed Jane's slice of rich chocolate cake before looking up at Jane.

Jane raised her eyebrows and the smirked to herself as she scooped up a spoonful of the melting cake and held it out across the table. Maura leaned forward slowly and took the spoon in her mouth. She looked up at Jane the whole time as Jane pulled the spoon away just as slowly. Then she closed her eyes and sighed contently as she savored what appeared to be the best chocolate cake in the world. Jane had to admit that that was probably one of the sexiest ways one could possibly eat a cake.

"It was good?" Jane asked.

"Excellent. Fantastic texture," Maura said. She scooped up a spoonful of the caramel ice cream and held it out to Jane. "Your turn now."

Jane felt suddenly and very uncharacteristically shy. Maura usually did exceedingly well at the sexy seductress thing. Jane, Jane did not do sexy very well and she had a tough act to follow. She decided not to try because that usually ended badly and instead hoped that her being turned on would be good enough for Maura.

It must have been sexy enough because Jane saw that Maura licked her lips as she watched Jane eat the ice cream. Maura was always going on and on about body language, and that was apparently one of the 'most obvious signs of arousal' to use Maura's phrase.

"That was excellent too," Jane said as she reached for her water glass while still looking at Maura.

Maura looked away first. She began eating her ice cream more quickly than Maura usually ate things. She always said food, especially good food like this, needed to be eaten slowly so that one can appreciate the intricate tastes and textures. Now though, Maura seemed to have forgotten her own advice and ate her dessert as quickly as Jane had devoured that delicious pasta.

Jane couldn't tell if Maura was anxious to get back to the house after the intense eye sex or if she was trying to avoid an intensity that she maybe couldn't understand. Regardless, Jane also ate her dessert quickly.

After Jane literally scrapped her plate clean, she waved over their waiter and asked for the bill. He left and returned a few minutes later. Maura reached out to take the bill, but Jane snatched it up quickly.

"I told you. I'm paying," Jane said as she looked at the slip of paper.

"Really, Jane. Don't be silly. This is a very expensive restaurant," Maura said as she unzipped her purse, disregarding the fact that Jane already waved the waiter over to pay the bill.

"Yeah, and I was really drunk. Besides the bill wasn't that bad," Jane said as she handed the bill and money to the waiter and nodded to him. "Tell you what. Next time we do this you get to pick and pay for the place."

"Fine," Maura said as she and Jane began to rise from their seats.

Jane noticed a smile tug at the corner of her lips at the mention of a next time. It wasn't that Jane was paying too much attention to Maura's lips. No, she was simply a detective, and she instinctively noticed those types of things.

They emerged from the restaurant and Jane immediately felt the biting cold of the night air. The temperature had fallen at least ten degrees, maybe more in the two hours they'd been in the restaurant. Both women quickly made it to Jane's car and got in their respective sides.

Jane rubbed her hands together and immediately turned the heat all the way up after starting the car.

"Not such a good wardrobe choice for this weather, huh?" Jane asked, gesturing to her dress, which left a lot of leg exposed to the elements, and for Maura's viewing pleasure.

"It looks gorgeous on you though," Maura said.

Even if Maura had been a pathological liar, Jane would have known Maura was telling the truth from the way that her eyes were drawn to Jane's legs, up her body then back down again. Maura was definitely a leg woman. Jane would have to remember that.

"Do you want to go back to my place now?" Maura asked. Jane thought Maura might have intended to put on her sexy voice, but she spoke without the usual confidence.

"Yeah, let's go," Jane said. She quickly put the car into gear and drove off.

When they arrived in Maura's driveway, Jane parked the car and they sat in silence for a moment. This was one of those awkward end of date moments that Jane hated.

"I'll walk you to the door. It's kind of dark out," Jane said as she got out before Maura, with her literal interpretations, could point out that the door was within sight of the car.

Maura got out as well and walked a few paces ahead of Jane to the door without saying a word. Just as she got to the door, Maura turned around quickly to face Jane.

"Was this a date?"

Well, Maura never was one for subtlty.

"It was a dinner," Jane said. She should just admit it, but Jane was stubborn.

"That does not answer my question, Jane," Maura said. She narrowed her eyes and took a step closer.

"I don't know why you need an answer," Jane said.

Even as she said it, Jane wondered why she was making this so difficult on herself and Maura, why she didn't just take this absolutely golden opportunity. She had made up her mind though. She would wait for Maura to state the obvious because she had decided that's what Maura needed.

"I don't need an answer. I want your assessment of the situation," Maura said. Her features softened and she took another step forward.

"What's your assessment, as you call it, then?" Jane asked.

At first she thought she might have sacred Maura off with her challenging tone. She inwardly cursed the tough, wise cracking Boston kid that seemed to come out of her at the worst possible times. Then Maura simply smiled took another step forward and put her hands on Jane's shoulders.

"I would say with a satisfactory degree of scientific certainty that anyone with the capacity for reason could tell that tonight was, in fact, a date," Maura said, all the while looking Jane directly in the eye.

Jane allowed her facial expression to soften into something resembling a smile. Maura had done it. She had finally said what they both knew all along, albeit in her adorable, science-y, roundabout way.

"I suppose I could only answer one way then," Jane said.

"Well, you are still endowed with free will," Maura said. She moved her hands up Jane's shoulders and rested them on her neck, rubbing that sensitive spot just below the ear, the same one Jane had taken advantage of in the bar.

"Not when you're doing that I'm not," Jane said.

Jane couldn't tell who kissed who first, but that really made no difference. They were kissing, and God, was it good. She remembered enough from Friday to know that Maura was a good kisser, but this, this was something else. She felt as if every nerve in her body was on fire. Jane could feel everything and nothing but Maura all at the same time. There was no way that even Maura could have accurately explained how good it felt to finally kiss while both were fully present for the moment.

Maura was so delicate and dainty, but here she was, fighting for control, pushing her tongue aggressively into Jane's mouth. It felt fantastic and Jane loved that Maura still had the capacity to surprise her.

Maura kept her hand in place and pulled away from Jane. She laughed this sexy, throaty laugh that Jane had never heard from her.

"I've been wanting to do that all night," Maura said.

She kissed Jane again. This time they were both just a little less frenzied about it, but no less passionate.

"Can we go inside now?" Jane asked, her voice lower than she usually spoke. Jane didn't think it was anything special, but everyone she'd ever been with told her that voice was sexy as hell, so she used it to her advantage.

Maura bit her lip for a moment, then nodded and unlocked the door.

As soon as they were inside, without even turning the lights on, Jane began kissing Maura. She had Maura pinned against the nearest wall with impressive speed. She let her hands roam down Maura's arm to rest on her hips. She felt Maura shiver and heard her sigh when her fingers snuck up under Maura's blouse.

Jane moved her lips to Maura's jawline and down Maura's neck. She moaned, yes, Maura Isles actually moaned in a very unladylike way when Jane found the most sensitive spot on her neck.

"God, Jane," Maura whispered and Jane felt Maura's breath on her own neck.

Jane smiled and moved back to kiss Maura on the lips. She remained close enough that their foreheads almost touched. Jane decided she had Maura right where she wanted her, with the way she was breathing and looking as if she might at any moment tear off Jane's dress.

"I noticed you admiring something earlier," Jane said. She took Maura's hand and placed it on her own leg. She guided Maura's hand upward under Jane's dress towards her hip. She hadn't intended to, but Jane got so turned on by that look in Maura's eyes that she began kissing Maura yet again. This time she heard herself moan.

"Jane," Maura said, pulling away enough so that she could move a strand of hair from her face and catch her breath. Maura's other hand remained on Jane's thigh. "I think we should go to bed now."

"You think so?" Jane said.

"Yes," Maura said, then added as she tilted her head to the side thoughtfully. "Not in the sense of going to sleep, because we are both far too aroused to sleep. I mean in the sense of doing things of a sexual nature, such as kissing and groping. We just have to keep in mind that sexual relationships between friends need to be pursued with caution. I simply want to be sure that—

"Maura," Jane said, smiling and taking Maura's face in her hands. Seeing Maura struggle to say what she felt put Jane instantly in protective mode even though she wanted nothing more than to have sex with Maura. "I'm not going anywhere. We'll do whatever you feel comfortable with."

Maura broke out into a huge grin. Then she did something that Jane could not for the life of her understand. Maura pulled her own shirt off in one swift motion and the unzipped the zipper on the side of her skirt. She let the clothes fall in a pile at her feet so that she wore just matching lace bra, underwear and heels.

"Do I look uncomfortable to you?" Maura asked. When Jane just continued staring at Maura's well formed breasts and yoga toned abs, Maura took Jane's hand and led her towards the bedroom.

**A/N-Sorry about the long wait. My senior thesis was being a massive attention whore, but I'm done writing it now. Yay!**

**Was that enough Rizzles action for you? I know some people wanted M, and I'm considering making it M later. Still not sure yet. Maybe I'll keep the fic T and do one or two smutty outtakes like I've done with a past T fic. Any thoughts?**

**Just as diamonds are a girl's best friend, reviews are a fanficcer's best bud. Please review! **


	10. Girly Thoughts

**A/N-I'm thrilled to see that so many people enjoyed the long awaited Rizzles hotness. Now here's some Rizzles sweetness for you...**

When Jane woke up the next morning, she rolled over expecting to find Maura curled up next to her in nothing but her underwear. Instead, she was welcomed by cool sheets and an empty bed. She glanced at the clock. It read 6:58 am.

Jane groaned and rolled back over for what felt like no more than two seconds. Then she heard Maura's radio click on and some very calm people whispering things about the economy or something else that sounded equally boring. Jane fumbled with the clock, but her foggy mind could not figure the damn thing out. Leave it to Maura to have the world's most complicated alarm clock.

Speaking of Maura, where was she? Jane was just waking up enough to realize that Maura was not in bed, where she should be. She must still be in the house.

"Maura," Jane called. When she did not get an immediate response, Jane yelled louder. "Paging Doctor Isles."

Then Jane heard the click of Maura's heels as the approached the door.

"I see you're up," Maura said as she entered the room, already fully dressed for work. She walked over to sit on her side of the bed. She added with a smile, "or I suppose the more accurate term would be that I _hear_ you're up."

"Yeah," Jane said. She smiled back at Maura as she propped herself up on her elbow. "Your clock won't shut off."

"Oh, here we are," Maura said as she picked up the clock and flicked a switch on the bottom. "I'm sorry, I like to start my mornings with some robust conversation."

"Robust? I had to shut it off because it was going to put me right back to sleep," Jane said.

"Well, I suppose NPR is not for everyone," Maura admitted.

After a moment of relaxed silence, Maura's smile suddenly faded and she looked away from Jane to the corner of her bedroom.

"I'm sorry, Maura I didn't mean to upset—

"No, it's not that," Maura said. Jane believed her, not just because Maura claimed to never lie, but because she looked Jane right in the eye to say it.

"What, then," Jane said sitting up and crawling over to sit next to Maura and put a hand on her shoulder. "Tell me what's bugging you."

"What happened last night," Maura said. She paused and looked at her hands. This was the moment Jane feared the most, that she would finally get through to Maura and there would be a retraction, a sort of 'this can't happen again' moment, the kind of moment she had suffered through one too many times.

"It's alright," Jane said as she took her hand off of Maura's shoulder quickly. "We can pretend it never happened."

Maura turned to look at Jane, and, if possible, she looked even more put off than before Jane had spoken.

"That's not what I was going to say, Jane. Is that what you want?" Maura asked. Even though Maura looked profoundly hurt at the thought, Jane felt relief at having her worst fear assuaged.

"No, no, not at all," Jane said as she shifted so that she was closer to Maura on the bed. She hesitated for a moment before taking Maura's hands. "What about last night though?"

Maura hesitated. She looked down then back up at Jane before speaking.

"It's just, you see, I don't do well with complicated human relationships. I'm just now developing a fuller understanding of how to navigate close friendships. I don't, I can't find an adequate definition for what we are now. What are we?"

Maura's voice had started out strong and matter of fact, but her last question sounded more like a plea.

Jane shrugged and stroked Maura's hair, as much a gesture of comfort as one of romantic intimacy.

"I'm not sure, but we don't have to push things," Jane said.

"How can you be comfortable without a definition," Maura said. "I need definitions and boundaries so that I can act accordingly."

"Ok, I'll tell you what," Jane said, turning to face Maura. "We'll call ourselves two people who have insane chemistry, happened to spend a lot of time together doing non-sexual and, lately, romantic type things together."

Maura sat and thought Jane's definition over for a moment. Jane realized after she said it that her definition sounded suspiciously like the definition of two people in a relationship, but she didn't let as much on to Maura, since the doctor didn't seem quite ready for that just yet. Jane figured that if she was ready, Maura would have said that they were in a relationship without hesitation.

"That will have to do for now," Maura said. She smiled again at Jane, that gorgeous, full smile, the one that went all the way up to her eyes. She put a hand on Jane's cheek and gave her a peck on the lips. "And Jane?"

"Yeah," Jane said her eyes drawn down to Maura's lips.

"I wouldn't mind you wearing just a bra and underwear to work," Maura said as she looked down to appreciate Jane's bare toned stomach. "But I believe it would severely limit my productivity."

"You think so? Well, we can't have an unproductive medical examiner," Jane said as she slowly rose from the bed to get her clothes off the floor.

It was then that she realized that the only clothes she had with her was a little black dress and very uncomfortable heels, neither of which would be even remotely appropriate for work.

"Shit, shit, SHIT!" Jane said as she stood grabbing her hair in frustration. Not only did she not have any normal clothes, but she had no time to return home for clothes in Boston traffic if she wanted to get to work anywhere close to on time. "I have nothing to wear."

"Jane, I think three expletives are a bit much," Maura said as she got of the bed and walked over to open her large wardrobe. She seemed to be enjoying Jane's wardrobe freakout much more than Jane would have liked. "You didn't bring a change of clothes with you?"

"No," Jane said as she bent down to snatch up the dress, which was balled up by the foot of the bed. "I didn't even know if we were going on a date so I didn't bring my handy shaving kit either. Sorry."

"You don't sound very sorry," Maura mumbled as she looked through the closet. "Don't worry, I should have something that you'll find suitable for work."

"Not a dress, no dresses or skirts," Jane said as she walked over to Maura and stood looking at the doctor's wide range of pricy outfits, some of which still had the tags on. "The guys'll give me shit."

"If you insist," Maura said. She sighed and continued looking. "I'll have to find a pair of unhemmed pants then because you are quite a bit taller than me."

Jane stood with her hands on her hips as she waited to see something that looked remotely wearable for work. Once in awhile Maura paused on an outfit, pondered it, then shook her head and moved on. Finally, she found a pair of black pants and a long sleeve, button up shirt that Jane could tolerate wearing.

"Here, try this on," Maura said as she sat down on the bed facing Jane. "Give me a fashion show."

"Really?" Jane groaned.

"I'm letting you borrow some very high quality clothing. It's the least you could do," Maura said. She didn't try the pouting this time, probably because she knew she didn't have to. Guilt by itself worked just as well in this case.

"Fine," Jane said.

She began to put the pants on first. Jane stumbled a little bit because she felt this weird nervousness at knowing that Maura was watching her every move intently. She could feel Maura's eyes on her as she bent down to pull up the pants and could have sworn that she caught a glimpse of Maura enjoying Jane's cleavage. Not that Jane minded, it was just strange that they were able to look at each other like that openly now. It would take some getting use to, but Jane was more than willing to make the adjustment.

When Jane finished putting Maura's outfit choice on, she put her arms out and spun around for Maura to see.

"What do you think?" Jane asked.

Maura just looked at Jane for a moment. Jane wasn't sure how she should take Maura's silence, but she suspected it might be a good thing.

"Um, Maura?"

Maura shook her head and smiled at Jane.

"It looks wonderful," Maura said. She got up and walked towards Jane. "Do you remember when I told you about how amazed I am by what people are capable of?"

"Yeah," Jane said.

"I feel that way about you," Maura said as she put her hands on Jane's hips. "And seeing this amazing clothes on you makes it difficult to find words. It's incredibly arousing to say the least."

"If me all dressed up turns you on more than me in a bra and underwear, we might have a problem," Jane said. She wondered to herself why she could not just take the wonderful compliment Maura had paid her. Nope, instead she made a joke out of anything that felt too intense.

"I never said that," Maura said as she moved away from Jane, but kept smiling. "Now let's find you some shoes."

* * *

If Maura were being completely honest with herself, which was actually harder than being honest with other people, she was in a fabulous mood. She shouldn't be. After all, statistically speaking, Tuesdays tended to produce lower mood and energy levels than most other days.

Maybe it was that fantastic date with Jane the previous night. Fantastic date with Jane. There were four words Maura had not predicted she would say upon first meeting the detective. Yet it had been terrific, probably one of the best dates Maura could remember, and she was almost positive she remembered all of them.

Maura couldn't spend too much time daydreaming about such things though, because she did have a potential murder victim open on her autopsy table. Maura took a few notes on some particularly gruesome internal injuries so that she would have something to give when Jane came down for a status update. According to Jane's usual pattern of behavior, that should be any minute now. Sure enough, Jane entered no more than ten minutes later.

"So what have we got here?" Jane asked as she stood in the doorway. Maura was keenly aware of Jane's eyes on her even as she bent over the victim.

Maura looked up and couldn't help but smile at Jane. She wasn't accustomed to seeing Jane so well dressed. Maura wished Jane dressed like that more often because she looked wonderful, but still very much Jane.

"Come in," Maura said as she went back to her work. "Make sure to put on the smock and glasses."

"I thought you said you liked this outfit on me," Jane said, raising her eyebrows suggestively.

"I do. I find it very attractive. That's why I don't want you getting any blood on it," Maura said. She wasn't sure how Jane missed the logic of that.

Jane just sighed and put on the outfit before approach the body, which Maura had returned to working on. Instead of standing across the table as usual, Jane walked over to stand next to Maura. She put her hand on Maura's lower back and leaned to take a look at Maura's handiwork. Maura stopped her notetaking and looked up at Jane.

"What?" Jane asked. "Did I get blood on your Gucci or something? Because I'm pretty sure I'm all covered up."

"No, it's just what you did. Just now," Maura said, trying and failing not to smile. "It was nice."

"Did what?"

Maura was fairly certain Jane knew exactly what she was talking about it, but had instead decided to be stubborn about it because she did not want to show a softer side. Jane was definitely proving a tough person when it came to accessing her emotions.

"I would show you, but my hands are a little full right now," Maura said, holding up her hands to show her bloodied latex gloves. She returned to start stitching up the man.

"Yeah, well, no problem I guess," Jane said. She continued watching as Maura expertly put the finishing touch on the stitching without saying anything else. "You find anything?"

"I know that he died slowly from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. I found the bullet, but it is too mangled to be of any forensic value," Maura said.

"Fantastic," Jane muttered as she pulled off the smock and goggles. She walked over to her 'morgue desk' to sit down.

Maura threw out her gloves and smock and walked over to sit on her 'wheely' chair, as Jane called it. She scooted over a few feet so that she was sitting by Jane. She understood that Jane did not take the report to be fantastic news, because she had not revealed anything of value that Jane didn't already intuitively know.

"Do I still get to pick where we have lunch this time?" Maura said as she took Jane's hands, which were resting in her lap. "You promised last night that I could pick today."

Jane smiled and looked down at their hands then back up at Maura.

"Yeah, but by that point, I would have promised you just about anything," Jane said. She took her hand away and rubbed Maura's knee. "Withholding what I wanted until you could get something from me. That wasn't very nice."

"I was very nice to you last night, Jane," Maura said, a smile pulling at the corner of her lips. "I believe your exact word was, if you'll excuse my language, 'fan-fucking-tastic.'"

"Yeah, it was something like that," Jane said. They made lingering eye contact again. Unlike the previous lingering, flirty eye contact, Maura understood it perfectly. She bent forward and put a hand on Jane's face and kissed her softly, no more than a second or two.

"You know, I don't normally like to mix business with pleasure," Jane said, though she didn't move.

"Is that so?" Maura asked. "Well, I'm technically not working at the moment."

"That's funny, because I go on my lunch break any minute now," Jane said. "Let's go to your fancy lunch place though. It's not very romantic in here."

Maura smiled and did her best not to be too enthusiastic as she got up quickly from her chair to take care of a few loose ends with regards to this victim's autopsy. She put the body in the appropriate freezer and filed away her preliminary notes in their appropriate place before leading Jane out to her car.

* * *

Jane loved touching Maura. Not just in the sexual way that someone might think if Jane said that, though she liked that part too. No, she liked the closeness she felt to Maura, how it seemed such a natural extension of their relationship. She sometimes did it without even thinking. Just on instinct that was when Jane felt best, when she was close to Maura.

Of course, she would never say that. Jane didn't like to say such things, mostly because they sounded stupid and girly. She would much rather show than tell.

God, Jane hated getting all sappy, but there she was walking out to Maura's car having all these girly thoughts.

"I'll drive if you want," Jane offered. The chances of Maura allowing that were slim, but Jane thought maybe, just maybe, Maura might hand over the keys if she played her cards right.

"Absolutely not," Maura said, as she approached the driver's side. Jane's stride was longer and quicker though, so she slipped in front of the door before Maura could get the key in. "Be reasonable, Jane. You don't even know where I intend to take you."

"You don't have to, just tell me where to turn and we'll be alright," Jane said as she put a hand on Maura's hip. "C'mon, I'm a fast driver."

Maura raised her eyebrows. "That is exactly why I will not allow you to drive my car. For an officer of the law, you tend to be a bit reckless on the road, and I'm rather fond of my car in its current condition."

"Really?" Jane said. "If that's your idea of charming a girl, we have some work to do."

"I had no intention of charming anyone," Maura said. "I was trying to use reason to persuade you, but clearly that is not what you were looking for."

Jane pulled Maura closer and smiled. She liked so many things about Maura, but the fact that she was able to say that and be genuinely surprised never failed to amuse Jane.

"I could always use a little ego boost," Jane said.

"Move out of the way," Maura said as she put her hands on either side of Jane's neck. Then she lowered her voice. "And I'll make it worth your while."

Maura gently put pressure on the back of Jane's neck and kissed her. Jane did not think she could ever get tired of Maura kisses. Each time was different, as if Maura actually put thought into her approach. Jane would not be shocked to find out that Maura actually had done in depth research on the subject.

"You make a compelling case, Doctor Isles," Jane said as she moved to the side to allow Maura into her car. This time around, Jane didn't mind being whipped, especially if it would be worth her while.

Maura just smiled and shook her head.

"Just get in the car. We should get there before the lunch rush," Maura said as she opened the car door.

Jane walked around to the other side and got in.

"Where to?" Jane asked.

"You'll know soon enough," Maura said as she turned the key in the ignition.

**A/N-Too much Rizzles fluff for you? There will be a conflict before this story finishes, so it won't be all sugary sweetness like this chapter. I don't know what you guys prefer unless you tell me, so speak up, because I love hearing from each and every one of you.**

**I had a random thought, just thought I'd throw this out there. I love watching fanvids, but I could not make one of my life depended on it. I was thinking if someone got some sort for a fanvid inspired by this fic and they told me about it, I could promote it on here and vice versa. I just want to spread the Rizzles love, so let me know what ya'll think.**

**Reviews are the only payment a fanficcer recieves. You guys have been paying my so very well, please keep it up! :o)**


	11. Lunch and Laundry

**A/N-It's obscenely late at night and I'm very tired, but I wanted to get this up for ya'll. Please pardon any silly mistakes...**

**If you are under the impression that I own R&I at this point in the fic, I'm flattered, but a little confused...**

Jane was surprised when they didn't actually end up at some haughty French café or some other place that she would make just as much a fool of herself. Maura pulled over and parked in one of the nicer areas of Southie in front of a place where Jane might actually look like she belonged.

"Come on," Maura said, waving Jane along as she walked around the car towards towards a place with a sign that said Murphy's Pub and Grill.

After the host sat Jane and Maura and gave them each a glass water, Jane took the opportunity to look around. It was funny, Maura would probably be more in her element at someplace even fancier than the Grotto. Yet here they were in a casual dining place that probably turned into a rowdy pub around nightfall on the weekends.

"This is my kind of place," Jane said as she took in the Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins memorabilia lining the walls. "This was your first choice?"

"Don't sound so shocked," Maura said as she picked up one of the laminated menus. "I go to the Dirty Robber with you all the time."

"Yeah, but this was, like, your choice, anywhere in Boston. I usually drag you along to the bar," Jane said. She knew there was more to Maura's decision than the fact that she wanted to find somewhere like the Dirty Robber, and the detective in her was determined to get to the bottom of it. "I thought for sure we'd be at some place where I can't pronounce half the stuff."

"Don't be silly, Jane. I wouldn't take you somewhere that you would embarrass yourself," Maura said.

"Thanks," Jane said, then she thought again. "Hey, wait a minute. What makes you so sure I would embarrass myself?"

Maura just raised her eyebrows.

"What?"

"We were at the same Fairfield banquet, correct? The same banquet where you drank their champagne like it was water and stabbed the fish as if it personally insulted you family," Maura said, clearly enjoying herself and the fact that she had made good use of non-literal comparisons.

"Yeah, well," Jane said, trying and failing to think of something to respond with. "I guess being fancy is just not my strength. I'm good at other things."

"I would say that you are excellent at a number of other things," Maura said as she placed her menu in front of her and leaned with her elbows on the table and rested her chin in her hands. Jane knew, she could just tell that Maura was also thinking about how well their last date had ended.

"See, now you're getting the hang of this charming thing," Jane said. She reached her foot out to rub it against Maura's ankle. "Before you know it, you'll have me doing whatever you want."

Maura tilted her head to the side and squinted. "Don't you already do whatever I want?" Maura asked, completely serious, as if she thought there might actually be a possibility that Jane still had some freewill when it came to Maura.

"Sorta, yeah," Jane said. She smiled at Maura then looked down at her hands then back up at Maura. "But I don't really mind too much."

Maura reached out and took one of Jane's hands in hers. Usually Jane got a little shy when people went for her hands. The scars didn't hurt anymore, but their presence there still made Jane feel vulnerable. Yet, for some reason, she trusted Maura enough to the point where it didn't bother her so much.

"You're sweet," Maura said. "I wish you would let people see that."

"Eww," Jane said, scrunching up her nose. "Let's not start those kinds of rumors. Before you know it the whole department will be talking."

"Your secret is safe with me," Maura said. She smiled and picked up the menu again. "Have you decided what you want to eat? Based on my research, this establishment is well known for something they call a grilled cheese burger."

"Not sure what a grilled cheese burger is, but it sounds good," Jane said. She pretended to read the menu for Maura's sake. She wasn't really that hungry and she would rather spend time looking at Maura than at the menu. "Hey, you never answered my question though. Why'd you pick this place of all the places in Boston?"

"I did some research earlier today," Maura said as she unwrapped the utensils and set them out in their appropriate places, a ritual Maura always did before ordering at restaurants that didn't set out the silverware already. "And I found this restaurant suited us both quite well. It has the ambiance that you appreciate and it embraces my Boston Irish heritage."

"So," Jane said, almost automatically turning on the part of her brain that translated Maura speak. "You mean casual for me and Irish for you?" Jane said.

"Succinct and to the point, as always," Maura said, nodding her approval as she took a sip of water and placed the glass back down.

Jane half smiled at Maura and fidgeted with the corner of her paper placemat out of some kind of subconscious desire to always be doing something. Maura must know what the deal was with that, Jane would have to remember to ask her sometime.

A few moments later the waitress came over to take their order. Jane placed an order for the grilled cheese burger and Maura ordered the fish and chips.

Jane always thought that the perks of one of these places was that the food came quickly, and this waiter did not disappoint. Before Jane and Maura could even get back into full flirting mode, their food arrived at the table. Jane had not thought she was hungry when she left the precinct, but the sight of that delicious looking burger made her forget all that. She took a big bite and it was just as good as the melted cheese and toasted bread made it look.

"Mmm, God, that's so good," Jane said as she licked some ketchup off of her finger.

"You approve?" Maura asked, her face lighting up like she was a kid on Christmas.

"Definitely," Jane said, nodding vigorously to reinforce her point before taking another bite.

Jane noticed that Maura started into her meal much slower than Jane had started devouring her meal. She cut off a small piece of her fish, tasted it, nodded and took another bite, this time dipping it in the ketchup. She continued eating her meal methodically while Jane forced herself to slow down so that she wouldn't finish before Maura was even half way through her meal.

Maura paused about halfway through her meal and squinted at Jane. Again with the diagnosing face. Jane didn't so much mind it because she was convinced that Maura had no idea that she was making it, but it took awhile to not be unnerved at suddenly becoming a specimen.

"What?"

"Nothing," Maura said putting down her fork to reach across the table and put her thumb on Jane's cheek. She slowly rubbed it and then pulled her hand away to wipe her finger with the napkin. "Just some ketchup, as I suspected. I wanted to be sure that you weren't developing a rare skin condition."

"What did we say about diagnosing people, Maura?" Jane said, raising her eyebrows, more amused than annoyed by Maura's compulsion.

"That there is a time and a place for it," Maura said reluctantly.

"And?"

"If I look hard enough, I will eventually find some abnormality in everyone," Maura said. She pursed her lips as if trying to hold back what was coming next. "But I would think you might _want_ me to point out if your health is failing in some way. I was trying to help."

"And who says I'm the sweet one?" Jane said.

"I wasn't aware that anyone said that about either of us," Maura said as she ate one of her fries. "On the contrary, some of the nicknames your coworkers have for both of us might indicate otherwise."

Jane nearly laughed out loud at the fact that Maura had actually interpreted what she said literally. She refrained though, because she knew Maura was sensitive about such things. There was a brief pause during which Maura looked deep in thought.

"Oh, I see. It was a joke," Maura said, apparently very pleased that she had finally figured out Jane's meaning.

Jane smiled and nodded. She looked at Maura for a moment, just watched as Maura got entirely into eating her food in a way that no one else could.

Jane was startled by a sudden jolt of realization. She was falling for Maura. Jane rarely fell for anyone, and she never fell quite so quickly. They weren't even officially a couple, so she _couldn't _be falling so fast. That was not how Jane did things. She kept her guard up until the other person let her in first, but she was almost certain that the roles were now reversed. Jane suddenly felt very vulnerable and she did not much like that part of falling for someone.

"Jane," Maura said. She was touching Jane's hand, caressing her fingers. "Are you feeling alright? You appear to be under the influence of some type of stressor."

"Nope," Jane said. She smiled at Maura. Even though she still felt entirely vulnerable and at Maura's mercy, it was not at all forced because she was in the position where she felt most comfortable: touching Maura. "I'm doing great."

* * *

By the time Maura arrived back at the police station with Jane, they each only had about two minutes left in their break. Maura had determined that it would be best for her accompany Jane to her desk so that she could give the other detectives an in depth update on her autopsy findings.

And of course to spend more time with Jane until the next autopsy came in. But the official work reason, as far as Jane's coworkers were concerned, was so that she could be of assistance in the investigation. Until she could determine the exact nature of her new relationship with Jane, Maura was glad to let Barry and Vince believe that she and Jane were strictly platonic friends.

When Maura arrived at Jane's desk, both detective Korsak and Frost were very gracious in welcoming both herself and Jane, although Jane seemed less than pleased by their reaction. Perhaps it had something to do with an earlier discussion or some inside joke that the detectives had going on.

"I knew I'd seen that shirt somewhere, Janie," Korsak said pointing at Jane's shirt then looking to Maura. "Doctor Isles, isn't this your shirt?"

"She let me borrow it," Jane cut in before Maura could answer.

"Really?" Korsak said, raising his eyebrows.

"Yeah, uh," Jane said. "Laundry day, I didn't have any unwrinkled clothes."

"Laundry, hmm, is that what they're calling it nowadays, Frost?"

"I don't know," Detective Frost said. He looked somehow amused and nervous at the same time. Oh, so they were playing a trick on Jane; that was the same look Detective Frost got the time that he had decided to hide Jane's desk chair in a broom closet.

Calling what laundry? It was infuriatingly difficult for Maura to understand conversations when people used pronouns without antecedents even if the meaning should be inferred based upon some shared body of knowledge.

"If you don't mind me asking," Maura interrupted, tired of being out of the loop in a conversation that might have something to do with her. "What precisely are we talking about here?"

Jane seemed to understand his meaning just fine though, because Maura noticed Jane's fists clench by her side.

"It's nothing, Maura. Don't worry about tweddle dee and tweddle dumb over here," Jane said turning so that she was facing just Maura with her back to the other detectives, a gesture often used to create a sense of intimacy between two people. She also put her hand on Maura's arm. "Why don't you go get the autopsy report and we can go over it up here."

"I will go get it if you think it would help," Maura said, although she did not see any particular need for the report at that exact moment. "I'll be back in a moment."

* * *

After Maura was out of sight, Jane turned sharply to glare at Frost and Korsak. This was the exact reason that she never told them anything about her love life. They acted like annoying little brothers even if Korsak was almost old enough to be her dad.

"You two," Jane said pointing from Frost to Korsak. "Need to stop it, right now."

"Aw, come on Janie," Korsak said putting his hands up in front of him. "We're just giving you shit. It's how we express our love."

"Well, find another way," Jane said, folding her arms over her chest. She was not at all convinced by Korsak's argument. "At least while Maura's around. I can take it, but Maura, she doesn't understand it. She'll take things seriously, so I do not want you giving me shit like that again when she's here."

"How romantic. Protecting the lady from distress," Korsak said, putting a hand on his chest, then he added with a wicked grin. "I'm touched. As I'm sure you both were last nig—

"Be civilized for once in your life," Jane said, after delivering a vicious blow to Korsak's arm. Jane grinned as she watched Korsak wince and rub it.

"I don't mean to interrupt," Maura said as she walked up behind Jane holding the file. "But I'm not sure that punching people is very civilized of you either, Jane."

"Really?" Jane said, giving her best 'what the hell' look. She had been protecting Maura, granted Maura probably didn't know that, but still, it wasn't fair and Korsak totally had it coming.

"What? I was simply making an observation," Maura said.

Jane wondered if Maura knew more than she let on about the conversation that had taken place in her brief absence. She didn't seem to because she launched into a detailed description of her autopsy, complete with medical jargon, half of which Jane did not understand.

"So we've got nothing, is that what you're saying?" Korsak asked when Maura finished.

"That's not what I said at all," Maura insisted. "It means that this would have been a non-fatal wound had he receive medical attention within a few hours. That must be a substantial development."

"Yeah, you know what, it could have been a robbery gone bad, the guy threatens him, he refuses to give up the money, which was still on him. The killer accidentally shoots him, panics and runs, only dead guy isn't dead yet," Jane said. What little evidence they had all fit perfectly into the robbery gone bad scenario and it wasn't all that unusual for something like that to happen.

"That wasn't what I meant," Maura said, waving her hand and shaking her head to try and slow Jane down as she did when Jane even ventured slightly into the hypothetical. "I was thinking something along the lines of a more accurate time of death. Your theory seems to contain an awful lot conjecture."

Before Jane could respond that they had to start somewhere, with some sort of plan, Maura's cell phone rang. When Maura saw the number, she looked a little confused, as if the number looked familiar, but she couldn't place it.

"I'll be right back," Maura said to everyone although she looked at Jane as she said it. "This should only take a minute."

"Yeah, no problem," Jane said. She nodded and, before she could stop herself, she touched Maura's elbow as she said. She noticed out of the corner of her eye that Frost and Korsak were giving each other knowing looks.

Jane watched as Maura walked out of sight, a part of her wondering why it was that Maura wanted to take the call in private. When she turned back around, the knowing looks had turned into grins. She couldn't blame them. She was being pretty obvious about her attraction to Maura, and was fully aware that the laundry excuse was not one of her shining moments.

She must have given them a dirty look, because Korsak gave her his best innocent face and Frost tried to look busy.

"We didn't say anything while she was here," Korsak said.

"Yeah, you didn't have to," Jane said as she sat at her desk, allowing herself a little smile. As much as the guys got on her last nerves sometimes, the teasing was all in good fun. Jane would probably do the same thing if Frost acted as smitten as she was acting around Maura.

Jane sat at her desk looking over lists of evidence and crime scene photos looking for some shread of evidence. When Maura hadn't returned after fifteen minutes, Jane found herself looking at the door more often than she looked at the work in front of her.

Seriously, who was Maura talking to in private for that long? Not that it was any of Jane's business, they weren't dating or anything. Just some kissing, groping and cuddling, that did not give Jane the right to know every single phone conversation. Jane's rational mind completely understood that, but Jane didn't exactly work rationally all the time.

She finally put down her pen and was about to figure out what had taken Maura fifteen minutes when Maura walked into the room. She looked really, really happy. Even though it concerned Jane that someone else had made Maura that happy, she couldn't help but smile.

"Who was that?" Jane asked.

"Doctor James Palmer, an old friend from Medical school who also went into forensic pathology," Maura said as she returned her phone to her purse. "He just moved back to Boston and he wants to go to out for dinner sometime this week."

"Great," Jane said, returning to her paperwork. She probably didn't have much to worry about. Maura was probably just excited that she had someone to talk to who didn't find cutting up dead bodies creepy. "Sounds like fun."

Jane briefly considered offering to go with Maura, but thought it would be too couply and forward of her to do something like that, especially in front of Frost and Korsak.

"Oh, and he also invited me to a forensic pathology conference in Hartford next month," Maura said. To look at how excited Maura was, Jane would have thought that someone had just proposed marriage or something. "Leading experts will be presenting on revolutionary autopsy methods."

"Sounds like a blast," Jane said. Even though she worked in Homicide, Jane still found Maura's fascination with cutting open dead people a little strange.

"Oh, it will be," Maura said in all sincerity. Then she added quickly, "I need to go finalize this autopsy report and put it in the database."

"Have fun," Korsak called after her.

"Well, I'd rather be doing autopsy, but I'll try," Maura said. Jane thought maybe Maura understood Korsak's sarcasm and was playing along, just based on knowing Maura and her mannerisms so well. "Oh, Jane, are we still on for Tuesday cocktails after work?"

"When have I ever said no to that," Jane said.

Maura smiled. Jane blushed at the thought that the smile was for her, caused by Jane and Jane alone. God, Jane needed to get control of herself, this was ridiculous, crazy even. As a detective, Jane should have developed a much better poker face.

After Maura left she turned around to see Frost with that shit-eating grin.

"You sure you're not madly in love with Dr. Isles, Jane?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Get back to work, Frost," Jane said, though she couldn't muster much of a glare or too much attitude for him. "We have a crime to solve. I think that's probably a little important than my love life."

Frost didn't say anything more. He just smiled and shook his head as he looked back down at the paperwork in front of him.

**A/N-So, here's some more fluff for you. I don't think I'll get too many complaints though, since most of the reviews for last chapter said that there's never enough fluff. I will mosey my way towards the conflict, but being a conflict avoider in real life, I'm not in a huge rush to get there :)**

**Reviews are like the toppings on my fanfiction sundae. What good would an ice cream sundae be without sprinkles and chocolate syrup? Please review!**


	12. Feelings, Feelings

**A/N-Here's a little Thanksgiving treat for you guys because you're all so gracious and patient with my once a week updates. I haven't gotten around to some review replies, but I thought ya'll would rather get a chapter than wait while I get caught up. Please know though that I appreciate each and every review though. I only hope that my updates give my reviewers half as much satisfaction as the kind, encouraging words bring to me. :)**

**I still don't own R&I, but I'm going to put that on the top of my Christmas list :)**

As usual, Tuesday cocktail night turned into Tuesday TV night when Maura and Jane decided that it would be best to simply stay in and have a drink. Maura made them each one drink and they sat on Jane's couch as Jane flipped through the channels looking for something they might both like.

The only thing different from previous Tuesday cocktails was that now they sat closer, Maura cuddled up next to Jane. Previous times, now that Maura reflected on it, they sat on opposite sides of the couch, making every effort not to touch each other too much. She wondered if maybe the sexual attraction that she first confirmed after the shoe incident had been there longer than she realized.

"Jane?"

"Yeah," Jane said, still looking at the television. She had caught the tail end of a _Cops_ episode and was watching intently as the police made an arrest for drunk driving.

"When did you first realize that you were attracted to me?" Maura asked.

Jane looked at Maura, apparently a little surprised at the question. Maura guess that was a reasonable reaction when she realized that Jane had not been privy to her own internal dialogue. Maura had to remind herself of that on occasion.

"Why do you wanna know?" Jane asked.

She moved a strand of Maura's hair and tucked it behind her ears. Ever since they started their flirting in earnest, Maura had realized just how tactile Jane was in expressing affection. It made sense given that detective work was a very hands on occupation, but Maura had not stopped to consider it before then.

"Intellectual curiosity," Maura said.

Jane looked up and to the left. Maura knew that meant she was trying to recall a memory from the more distant past. So, perhaps Maura was right, maybe there had been something there for a lot longer than she had consciously realized.

"Definitely before the undercover work at the bar," Jane said, smiling as much to herself as at Maura. "You probably knew that though. I wasn't very subtle."

"No, I didn't actually," Maura said as she tried to recall why it was that Jane's attraction should have been obvious. Then she recalled Jane's frequent glances at Maura's cleavage. "Actually, yes, that makes sense now. I just thought you were playing the part, but I remember now that you had a noticeable physiological reaction. Such reactions cannot be faked."

"How bout you, doc," Jane said, shifting so that Maura could settle more comfortably on her shoulder. "When where _you_ first attracted to _me_?"

Maura scrunched up her eyebrows and tried to think of a moment when there had not been elevated pheromones between them. The more she thought, the more foolish Maura felt for not having seen the pattern sooner.

"I came to a concscious realization about a week ago, around the time I stole your shoes," Maura said thoughtfully. "But I can't recall when the physical attraction first began."

"C'mon," Jane said. "I have a hard time believing that it's nowhere in that big brain of yours."

"You do know that my brain is no larger than yours or anyone else's, Jane," Maura said. She knew that Jane, with her powers of observation, probably understood that. She just could not understand why Jane insisted on using an inaccurate figure of speech.

"I know, smarty pants," Jane said. She didn't seem too upset about the correction though, because she gave Maura a lingering kiss on the forehead. "You're still a genius. It's actually really hot."

"It doesn't annoy you then?" Maura asked as she continued to rest her head on Jane's shoulder. Maura had always been under the impression that Jane felt insecure or annoyed at Maura's almost irresistible urge to share knowledge. She had certainly never considered that Jane might be aroused by Maura's google moments.

"Nope," Jane said as she put her feet up on the coffee table and changed the channel. "I mostly give you shit because I don't know what else to say. You go Google and I go sarcastic when we're not sure what to do next. It's just a part of how we deal, you know, a part of our personality."

"That's very insightful, Jane," Maura said.

Maura thought that Jane never gave herself enough credit when it came to intelligence. Jane's observation would have taken a few days of thought for Maura to realize, while Jane sort of took that knowledge for granted. Jane had a social intelligence that Maura marveled at as much as Jane seemed to admire Maura's impressive memory. Maura actually thought that Jane's type of intelligence sometimes had more practical applications than Maura's more traditional, book-based intelligence.

When Maura thought about it, Jane's innate social intelligence was incredibly attractive. Add that to Jane's stunning physique and Maura had a sudden urge to run her hands all over Jane's body. Instead, she settled on kissing Jane. She managed to straddle Jane and she put her hands in Jane's hair, then on Jane's back to pull her closer.

Jane pulled away after a minute or so and looked up at Maura. The detective's eyes showed signs of intense arousal, and Maura was sure hers must too. Jane laughed and it did not help Maura's arousal.

"What?" Maura asked impatiently.

"I should be insightful more often," Jane said. She resumed kissing Maura, this time trying to take back some control.

Maura got lost in the kiss, got lost in Jane. She could not have given a remotely accurate approximation of how much time had passed as they cuddled and kissed on the couch. Then, she heard her phone ring in her purse on the coffee table. She tried to ignore the buzzing and ringing, but Maura had always been intensely curious, and it would bother her the rest of the night until she knew who was calling her.

Maura managed to pull herself away from Jane. Jane started to whine, as Jane often did about things that tested her patience.

"It won't take long. It might be important," Maura said, reaching to grab her phone just before it went to voicemail and flipped it open without even looking at the caller ID. "Doctor Isles speaking."

"Doctor Isles, I'm not sure I'll ever get use to that," said a cheerful voice on the other end. It took Maura a moment to realize that it was Jimmy Palmer, the friend from Medical school who had called earlier.

Maura laughed as she recalled how it seemed as if they would never earn the title while staying up all hours studying for Biochemistry exams.

"Time has gone by quickly, Doctor Palmer," Maura said. "Is there something you need?"

Maura couldn't focus on his answer though, because Jane had decided that she'd had enough waiting. Jane was now trailing kisses down Maura's neck and along Maura's jawline in an effort to speed up the conversation. All it did was drive Maura so far to distraction that she could not focus long enough to politely end the conversation. She put her free hand on Jane's shoulder and pushed her away, shaking her head and mouthing 'no' as Jane tried to use her own trick and pout at Maura.

"How does that sound?" James asked.

Maura decided that it might be best to move out of Jane's proximity if she were to carry on a coherent conversation with Jimmy that did not involve him constantly repeating himself. The quicker she got through the conversation, the quicker she would be able to get back to Jane. It all made perfect sense, so she got off the sofa and wandered towards the kitchen.

* * *

Jane felt just a little bit miffed at Maura's refusal to hang up the phone and return to their little make out session. She got that Maura had to answer the phone because she was an important person, that Jane understood. But why couldn't she have just ended the conversation quickly? She didn't have to totally kill the mood by getting up and leaving the room to have a lengthy conversation with some doctor friend about their shared interest in cutting up dead people.

Jane heard Maura laugh from the other room and she took another swig of beer as she continued to flip through the channels.

Seriously though, what was it with Maura and needing to leave the room to talk to this guy? Before the question fully formed in Jane's head, she pushed it away. She was being unreasonable and she knew it. Jane just felt so vulnerable, and had decided that it was absolutely the worst feeling in the world. It made Jane a little bit cranky, as Maura might say.

Jane settled on half-watching some cake baking show because the cakes actually looked really good and the shop reminded her of Mike's Pastries by her old house. Damn, now she was hungry. Jane was starting to contemplate whether or not Mike's might be open so late at night when Maura returned from her phone call.

She looked all perky and bubbly just like after the last call. Jane liked happy Maura better than sad Maura, yet she couldn't help but wonder what this guy did to get Maura so enthusiastic and happy, _and _willing to leave a hot make out session.

"That was Jimmy Palmer," Maura said.

Now she was calling him Jimmy? Maura never used nicknames, not unless she was very comfortable with the person. With Korsak, for example, it took forever for her to stop calling him Vincent, and it was only after some proding from Jane. Jane wondered whether she would get nickname status if it were possible.

"Yeah, I kind of figured that out when you called him Doctor Palmer," Jane said. She tried to convince both herself and Maura that the statement was nothing more than the gentle sarcasm Jane used on Maura. It didn't sound all that convincing though, at least not to Jane.

Maura squinted her eyes and pursed her lips as if she wasn't quite sure what to make of Jane's statements.

"He wants to meet for dinner and catch up," Maura said as she took her place back on the sofa. "He was calling to see if Saturday would be acceptable and to suggest a possible location."

"Sounds good," Jane mumbled as she continued to watch the family on the screen bicker about how to arrange some cupcakes. She pulled Maura closer and put her arm around her shoulders, almost on instinct. She felt safer and more secure that way, with Maura physically closer to her.

"You know what," Jane said to break a silence that had fallen over the room. "This is making me want to go eat a can of frosting, and I've got to stay in shape, you know, to chase down the bad guys. I think it's your turn to pick a show."

Maura laughed the laugh that Jane so adored. She took the remote from Jane and began scrolling through the channel guide.

* * *

Jane was proving to be quite a puzzling person. She always acted very sure of herself and expressed affection with an ease and frequency that Maura had never achieved. Yet Maura got these moments, these little glimpses of Jane that she couldn't quite understand.

Jane would act completely open and honest, then Maura would suddenly see something change in Jane's eyes and posture. It was never for too long, but they body language indicated a sort of closing off. It was a defensive posture if Maura had ever seen one; Jane's eye's narrowed almost imperceptibly, her shoulder muscles tensed and Maura noticed Jane start to rub the scars on her hands.

That was the image of Jane that Maura got when she returned from the phone call with Jimmy and she could not figure out the source of Jane's anxiety. There was a strange edge to Jane's voice too that Maura could quite pinpoint either. It only lasted for a moment, then it vanished by the time Maura sat down next to Jane and began scrolling through the available channels.

It had taken a little getting used to, the kissing and the flirting and the cuddling with Jane. They had, after all, been close friends for awhile before things ever got romantic. She felt almost as if she should ask permission at first before cuddling up next to Jane. It felt like a different kind of intimacy than their steamy first kisses; it was an everyday type intimacy based more on genuine affection than pure lust. Lust was still there, yes, it was very much present when they were even in the same room together.

So, yes, Maura's pheromones and hormones spiked dramatically when she hesistantly rested her head on Jane's shoulder and snuggled closer.

Maura scrolled through several more channels before settling on a very interesting French film, complete with subtitles for Jane's benefit. Jane obviously was not having any of it.

"C'mon, Maura. Really?" Jane protested as she made an attempt to grab the remote from the table, but Maura was too quick. "I have over three hundred channels and this is what you pick, some fancy pants French movie?"

"Yes, Jane, it's a classic," Maura insisted, holding tightly to the remote. She did like the film, but was also eager to test out Jane's hypothesis from lunch. She wanted to determine if she did in fact have that much power over Jane. "Trust me, you'll enjoy it."

"I doubt it," Jane mumbled, but she settled back into her seat, resigned to watching Maura's choice. She fell silent for a while so that Maura could watch the film.

A few minutes later, perhaps to prove that she was still paying attention, Jane added, "I don't like that snobby French guy. He's going to be an ass, I just know it."

Maura did not bother to respond, in part because she was right that the 'snobby French guy' did in fact end up double crossing the protagonist. Instead, Maura just shook her head and laughed.

That was why she got along so well with Jane. After growing up surrounded by very cold, serious people, Maura needed someone who didn't take things so seriously. And Jane, she came off as warm and kind even when she spoke sarcastically about snobby French guys. It just felt good to be around someone like that for once.

Feeling, feeling, what was with all this feeling? It scared Maura a little that she found herself getting so carried away with these thoughts of Jane, with these irrational idealization of what some considered a personality flaw. Even in matters of the heart, Maura had always managed to think rationally and logically about the situation and the person in front of her.

Logically, she should have been mildly annoyed that Jane was sound asleep by the end of the movie, but Maura was not bothered in the least. She waited until the credits had rolled to poke Jane in the ribs. Jane woke with a start, snapping her head up and looking around.

"How long were you sleeping, Jane?" Maura asked.

"I wasn't sleeping. I was meditating," Jane said as she finished yawning. "You always say I should meditate more."

"Jane," Maura said, narrowing her eyes in imitation of what Jane did when she knew a suspect was lying. "You were sleeping."

"If I was sleeping, how would I know that the nice French guy marries the pretty lady and the snobby French guy gets the boot, hmm?"

Maura laughed at Jane's self-satisfied grin, her absolute confidence that she had tricked Maura.

"You would not know that Jane, because the pretty French lady died at the end," Maura said.

"No shit?" Jane said.

"Absolutely none that I saw," Maura said. She understood that Jane was likely using a colloquialism, but she sometimes liked to act as if she didn't, because she did prefer people speak more literally.

Jane raised her eyebrows at Maura, then she just looked at Maura and smiled before kissing her with less desperation than usual. There was an intensity there, in Jane's eyes and Jane's kiss, that Maura had never seen in others or even experienced in herself. She wanted that feeling, as dangerous as feelings were, she wanted it all for herself. Maura decided then and there that she wanted Jane all for herself. The realization both startled and excited Maura simultaneously, a feeling that she rarely got.

That major realization made it all the more difficult for Maura to leave Jane's apartment when the time came much later in the night for her to return home. She wanted nothing more than stay with Jane, but Maura had not turned completely irrational; she did need to return home so that she would have something suitable to wear the next day.

As she left Jane's apartment, Maura could not determine what exactly would be the most appropriate way to say goodbye. This hadn't really been a date, but they had done things that a couple might do during what had previously been a platonic tradition. She puzzled over the issue as she pulled on her jacket and gathered up her purse.

Jane solved the problem by giving her a soft peck on the lip as she opened the door. Maura felt tempted to extend the kiss, but resisted, suddenly a little bit shy about being so forward.

"See you tomorrow?" Jane said, her eyes drifting to their customary place on Maura's lips.

Maura could only manage to swallow and nod, finding her throat suddenly dry.

Jane only half closed the door and stayed stand in the archway as she watched Maura walk down the hallway. Maura would not have known, except in a sudden fit of girlish enthusiasm she snuck a peek back and saw Jane stand in the same place watching her leave. Maura blushed at being caught, but waved at Jane.

"Bye," Maura managed this time, smiling an illogically large smile for the social situation.

"Bye," Jane echoed, mirroring Maura's silly smile with one of her own.

Maura walked the remaining length of the hallway very slowly. Emotions might prove messy and unrealiable in comparison to empirical data, yet Maura was starting to see that subjective emotional responses were quite valuable. And, as it turned out, quite enjoyable as well.

**A/N-It's getting to that time in the story where I start to struggle, so I'm sorry if the writing is starting to go downhill. Before the chapters just came very easily and any work I did was mostly editing. Now though, I'm really trudging through what some might call a writer's block.**

**To use a Boston Marathon analogy, this part of the fic is like my Hearbreak Hill, the part of the race where the terrain gets hilly and you still have a few more miles left to run. Please help to cheer me on up that hill! :)**


	13. Dinner with Doctor Palmer

**A/N-Since I haven't changed my name to Tess Gerritsen or TNT, I'm assuming you all know I still don't own any of this...**

Jane did not like Jimmy Palmer, not one bit, not even a little. It wasn't that he was a bad guy, on the contrary, he was too much of a good guy, too nice and too friendly for Jane's taste. And Maura, being her meticulous self, had invited him to consult on a Jane Doe that she could not manage to indentify.

Jane knew for a fact that Maura was the best in her field. She couldn't for the life of her understand why the guy was now standing here in _Maura_'s lab, over _Maura's_ dead people table, analyzing _Maura's _autopsy. To top it off, the guy had this weird habit of providing longwinded history lessons that were only vaguely related the case at hand.

Jane exhaled audibly as he came to the end of a particularly boring monologue that somehow ended up on the topic of eighteenth century Russian government.

"So, does that mean that you can ID her?" Jane asked, doing her best to sound patient when she caught Maura's warning look. Maura knew her well enough to realize that Jane's patience had all but run out. Jimmy, however, was blissfully unaware.

"Oh, no, I believe that Dr. Isles has done a rather exhaustive search and autopsy," he said nodding and smiling appreciatively at Maura. "Of course, I would expect no less."

See, that, that was why Jane did not like this Doctor Palmer character. He acted too nice and too friendly and he gave off this strange, almost flirty vibe around Maura. Jane was convinced, absolutely convinced that he had feelings for Maura. She was also fairly certain that he considered their first dinner a date, even if Maura genuinely believed it was just a dinner between friends. Then he had asked her out for dinner again a few days later and Jane was certain that he believed he was courting Maura.

The whole situation would not have bothered Jane so much if not for their ambiguous relationship. Maura had never expressed any more desire for a redefinition though, so Jane hadn't pushed the issue. Now, though, this guy, who had a lot more in common with Maura and a lot more brains than Jane, he was trying to weasel his way into Maura's life.

"Thank you very much Doctor Palmer," Maura said brightly, too brightly for the fact that they were standing over a dead body that they couldn't identify. She had noticed Jane's frown deepen though and was obviously trying to steer the conversation in another direction. "We appreciate your help."

Help? What help? All Palmer had managed to do was bore Jane to tears in the process of telling her that he had nothing to say that Maura had not already told her. But Maura had warned Jane to play nice before Palmer arrived because he was doing them a favor.

Jane raised her eyebrows, grinned and nodded at Jimmy. She didn't trust herself to open her mouth if she could not be a smart ass about how very helpful he had been.

She pretended to look busy reading the case file over as Palmer packed up his equipment and Maura sewed the body back up. Jane also acted as disinterested as humanly possible when Palmer walked over to Maura with a silly grin and kissed her on either cheek like had seen rich people do when they're greeting each other.

When Palmer had left the room, Jane dropped any and all pretense and looked pointedly at Maura, who just looked confused by Jane's irritation.

"What's wrong, Jane?" Maura asked as she removed her bloody gloves and disposed of them.

"You really don't know?"

"Well, I assume it has something to do with Doctor Palmer," Maura said as she sat down at her desk, next to where Jane stood with the manila folder in hand. "I just don't understand why you feel so strongly about him."

"I don't like him," Jane said flatly. "I just don't like him."

"Is this one of your uncorroborated 'instincts' as you might put it," Maura said as she signed some paperwork with a flourish of her pen. "Because I have known Jimmy for some years, and I have never had any such feelings about him. He is a good man."

"That's it," Jane said, pacing as she chewed on the end of her pen. "He's too nice, too friendly with you."

Maura laughed and waved Jane's comment off. "Don't be absurd, Jane. That's how he is with everyone."

"I just don't like it, I don't like how he acts. He's too, too familiar when he's with you," Jane said, finally pausing her pacing to lean against the table. She glanced up at Maura who looked confused for a moment before breaking out into a grin that appeared to be suppressing a laugh. "What? What's so funny?"

"You are exhibiting a classic display of mating behavior," Maura said. "It's quite fascinating."

"Huh?"

"You are pacing like a caged animal, you are engaging in behavior that would sharpen your teeth if humans weren't so maladapted for hunting, and you are exhibiting irrational hostility towards a perceived threat," Maura rattled off enthusiastically as she got up and walked over to Jane, the smile still on her face.

"What does that mean?" Jane asked, some of the anxiety from earlier slipping away as Maura moved closer with that sexy stride and her smile softened.

"You see Jimmy as a threat to your pursuit of my affections," Maura said. She was now standing up against Jane, a hand on the table on either side of Jane. She tilted her head and appeared amused more than anything else. "You are jealous of Doctor Palmer."

"No I'm not," Jane said, almost on reflex. Then Maura started with her begging eyes thing and Jane could hardly stand it. She tried looking away, but Maura took her chin and looked her in the eye. "Maybe a little."

"That's sweet, Jane," Maura said. "But there's really no need to be concerned about Doctor Palmer at the moment."

"Why is that?" Jane asked.

"Because you keep me very well occupied," Maura said.

Maura pushed Jane against the desk and began to kiss her without any regard for who might walk by the rather large window. Even though she usually liked to remain professional while at work, Jane didn't put up a fight at all. She liked feeling secure, liked the reassurance of having Maura's body and lips pressed against hers.

* * *

Maura could not say with any certainty what had come over her that would make her act so unprofessionally in a morgue, of all places. Jane just had that effect on Maura. Maura came undone, and not in the sense that she went insane; Maura was fairly certain she was just as sane as she had been before getting romantically involved with Jane. She had started to think less and feel a lot more; that was the only way Maura could accurately describe what was going through her head.

And even if Maura could not for the life of her understand Jane's jealousy of Jimmy, she understood that Jane felt she had legitimate reasons for her feelings. Jane just needed reassurance that Maura was not interested in having sexual intercourse with Jimmy. That, that was why she had kissed Jane in the morgue in full view of anyone that might walk by. Yes, see, Maura did have a completely rational explanation; she hadn't become _completely_ impulsive and reckless.

As it turned out, the precinct was largely empty so late in the evening, so no one caught them.

"So," Jane said. She glanced appreciatively down at Maura's body, then back up. Maura knew better than to think that Jane was appreciating her vintage skirt. "You want to call it quits now, head back to my place?"

"I would love to," Maura said, not moving away from Jane. "But I have dinner commitments in about an hour."

"With the illustrious Doctor Palmer?" Jane asked. Maura thought that she sensed a hint of resentment in what Jane had tried to disguise with her trademark sarcasm.

"I'm not sure I would call him illustrious. He's fairly unknown in forensic pathology circles, even if he is very competent in his field," Maura said.

"That's comforting," Jane muttered.

"It wasn't meant to be. It was simply a statement of fact," Maura said. That was one of her famous half truths. It had been a statement of fact, but if Jimmy's mediocrity soothed Jane's irrational jealousy, then so be it. Then Maura made yet another impulsive decision. "Come with me. You can see for yourself that Jimmy is not a threat."

Jane looked surprised at the sudden offer, so surprised that she did not immediately respond. Maura wondered if Jane even wanted to be around her and Jimmy. The two of them together would probably bore Jane more than they did individually.

"I don't want to be in the way," Jane said as she hoisted herself so that she sat on the desk. She bit her lip and looked down at her fingernails. "Besides you probably have reservations for two already."

"This restaurant does not take reservations. I'm sure Jimmy won't mind, and I know I certainly have no objections," Maura said as she rested her hand on Jane's knee. She smiled softly when Jane looked up from picking at her fingernails.

"Are you sure I won't embarrass you in front of your rich friend?" Jane asked, with the old playful sarcasm back in her voice.

"I'm certain of very few things," Maura said as she moved slowly away to retrieve her jacket from its hook. "But you may come regardless."

"How very generous of you, Doctor Isles," Jane said. Even though she was facing away from Jane, Maura could tell that Jane was probably smiling, just based on slight differences in vocal inflection. "Do I get to order from the adult menu too?"

Maura laughed as she fixed her hair and crossed the room back to where Jane still sat on the desk.

"Yes, you may. So long as you act like an adult," Maura said. "Would you like to come with me?"

Jane got up off the desk and grabbed her jacket from where she had tossed it over the chair earlier.

"Do I get to drive?" Jane asked.

"Not a chance," Maura said, though she was fairly certain Jane already knew that answer before they asked the question. It was a running joke they had established long ago.

"Not even if I make it worth your while?" Jane teased as she leaned against the door to open it.

"Though very tempting," Maura said as she double checked that all the lights were out and the appropriate doors were locked. "I'm going to have to reject your offer."

Jane stood leaning against the half open door as she watched Maura walk around the lab finishing up her routine.

"Well, it was worth a try," Jane said as she followed Maura out the door.

"It was a valiant effort," Maura said, turning to smirk at Jane. "A doomed effort, but a valiant one nonetheless."

"Thanks, I guess," Jane said. "Now lets get to this restaurant place. We don't want to keep Doctor Palmer waiting."

Maura rolled her eyes when she detected a bit of sarcasm in Jane's last comment. She really could not help herself; Jane truly did not and could not like Doctor Palmer. Though surprising, it was strangely endearing. Jane's concern over Maura's closeness to Jimmy meant that she cared enough about Maura to be concerned about losing her to someone else.

Though entirely unnecessary for all practical purposes, Maura took Jane's hand to lead her out to the car.

* * *

Jane for the life of her could not figure out why she had agreed to go out to dinner with this Palmer guy. Because it was for Maura, and Jane had already firmly established that she would do just about anything to make Maura happy, including months of marathon training, three hour yoga sessions, and now dinner with Doctor Palmer.

A tiny part of it might have also been to scope out the competition. Jane did not want that to be part of it, as a matter of fact she resisted the very idea that she cared enough, was jealous and insecure enough to need reassurance that this skinny, boring guy might be a threat.

He was a threat though. Jane might not have had the same IQ as Maura, but she considered herself pretty good at reading people, and Jimmy was not interested in just friendship with Maura. Maybe they ahd been just friends before, but he for sure wanted more now. It wasn't any one big flashing sign that Jane could point to, just a feeling that she got when she saw him look at the doctor.

Take the way that he looked at Jane when he realized that she had come to dinner with Maura. He looked surprise, which would have been understandable, but there was also something else there, a hesitation as he looked to Maura, as if for some reassurance that Jane was actually invited. As if Jane would ever willingly crash dinner at a restaurant that served fancy looking French food.

"Doctor Palmer," Jane said, nodding and shaking his hand in her best impression of politeness. She didn't want to make Maura regret offering the invitation. "Nice to see you again."

"Yes, this is quite a surprise, seeing you here," Doctor Palmer said pleasantly enough. He looked again to Maura, as if asking for an explanation yet again. Clearly he didn't know Maura that well because she needed more than a subtle glance, so Jane offered an explanation.

"Doctor Isles and I were leaving work at the same time and she asked if I would like to join her," Jane said. "I hope you don't mind. I feel terribly interrupting your meal, but Maura insisted that it would be no bother."

Ok, so she did not actually need that last part, and she was pretty sure that Maura tried to give her a dirty look for saying it. It was totally worth it though, because it was the best way to confirm her suspicions about Jimmy.

"Oh, no, of course not, it's my pleasure," Palmer said, too eager for it to be completely genuine. He looked at Maura yet again. Jesus, this guy looked at Maura more than Jane did, and Jane looked at her a lot. Jane tensed up at the thought of what might be going through his mind when he looked at Maura.

"Would either of you like an appetizer?" Maura asked. She was either blissfully ignorant of the awkward tension that had settled over the table or was making a very transparent effort to change the subject. With Maura, sometimes Jane couldn't tell.

"I don't know, I'll take a look," Jane said as she flipped through her menu. She doubted she would be able to find an appetizer that she would like, but it was something to do.

The three of them continued their meal with the same kinds of tentative small talk. Then Palmer would steer the conversation so that they started talking about medical school and intern experience. When Maura spoke about those years, she got all excited and enthusiastic, esspecially when recalling her first day as an intern in a morgue. Jane could not be a part of that though, so she was left to smile and nod as she listened to the two of them laugh and chatter about medical stuff.

For something that Maura insisted was not a date, Palmer was certainly treating it like one. He even used a few of Jane's little trick for showing interest, the hand touching and the attempts at prolonged eye contact, it was all there. Jane managed to sit through almost a whole meal watching Jimmy's attempts at flirting before she had to get away.

"I have to go to the bathroom," Jane said, as she rose from the table. "Would you like to join me, Maura?"

Maura seemed to understand Jane's meaning, as Jane hoped she would. Maura excused herself very politely and followed Jane to the bathroom. As soon as the door swung shut, Jane turned around to face Maura.

"Do you still think this isn't a date?" Jane asked.

"I don't know. I wasn't looking for signs," Maura said. She looked sincerely confused at Jane's frustration.

"You don't need to look, Maura. It's all right in front of you!" Jane said. She had tried to sound patient, but most Rizzolis usually failed miserably in that department and Jane was no different.

"I'm sorry that I don't understand people the way that you do, Jane," Maura snapped back.

Jane bit her lip to keep from saying something that would probably cause some serious damage. She took a deep breath before speaking.

"I'm not asking you to," Jane said slowly. "Just, just think about how he acts around you. Act like it's an experiment and all his little actions are like some sort of evidence."

Maura put her hands on her hips and looked at Jane. She clearly was not having any of it.

"Jane, the very reason that I like Jimmy is that I can be around him without having to do that. I already have to do that with almost everyone else," Maura explained, then added as if it were completely unimportant. "Besides, we don't work romantically. We both moved on years ago."

"Moved on, you mean, there was something to move on from?" Jane asked incredulously. She had a hard time believing her own ears because Maura had been so dismissive of Jane's suspicions just moments before.

"Not much, it was years ago, only a few dates," Maura said. "I really don't see why any of this concerns you."

"I can think of at least ten reasons," Jane said. She could only really think of two reasons, but she was trying to make a point.

"Ten, really, well that's quite impressive," Maura said. Now she was really getting upset, because she only brought out the sarcasm when she was really frustrated. "If it makes you feel any better, all of the dates were disasters and his penis is well below average."

"Well, that's just great," Jane said. "This is getting better and better. Please, tell me more."

Jane actually didn't want to know more, so she desperately hoped that Maura understood this bit of sarcasm. As a matter of fact, Jane had heard too much, and her overactive imagination had already generated enough unpleasant images to give her nightmares for the next week.

"You're impossible," Maura said as she leaned against the wall of the bathroom. "You do realize that the intense jealousy that you are exhibiting is very unattractive?"

Leave it to Maura to think that Jane might not understand that insecurity was a turn off. Usually Maura's childlike cluelessness was endearing, but now it just annoyed Jane even more.

"Gee, here I was thinking it would get you all hot and bothered," Jane said. "Do you think I enjoy feeling like I'm third wheel? Do you think that I really want to watch my girlfriend go on a date with a guy, even if that guy does have a small dick?"

Maura paused and looked at Jane. Her arms dropped by her side as she appeared to think long and hard about what she would say in response. Jane only realized much too late that she had called Maura her girlfriend.

"We're in a relationship?" Maura asked. "I didn't know that."

"No, we're not, not really," Jane said.

Jane obviously did not feel that way. But Maura's reaction, her uncertainty at being called Jane's girlfriend for the first time, it made Jane want to take it back almost as soon as she realized what she had said. Besides, she didn't like being looked at so intensely, the way Maura appeared to be searching her for answers.

"Then I don't see why you would have any reason to object to my history with Jimmy," Maura said coolly. All the fire from the fight had disappeared and completely logical, rational Maura had returned. "Or the fact that I might be on a date with him."

Jane almost visibly flinched at Maura's apparent indifference and her mention of being on a date with Jimmy. Maura wanted to act as if she couldn't care less. Well, two could play at that game.

"You're right, I don't have any reason to care," Jane said as she took her wallet out of her pocket and removed a few bills to hand to Maura. "Here's money for my dinner. Enjoy the rest of your date."

Maura tried to say something as Jane walked towards the door, but Jane didn't stay to hear it. She couldn't stay in this restaurant any longer than absolutely necessary. Jane grabbed her jacket and gave Palmer some excuse about a call from dispatch before getting outside as quickly as possible.

She took a deep, steadying breath. Jane didn't move from her spot just outside the entrance for a good minute or so. She considered going back inside and trying to fix it, but something stopped her. Instead, she took out her phone to call a cab.

**A/N-How's that for lucky number 13? I hadn't planned it this way, but I think it's fitting given what happens. I don't like fighting, but for some reason I came up with some really hurtful things that they could say to each other that I kept out of here. Should I have made the argument more intense and bitter? I also like to know after an argument chapter what side people fall on: Team Jane, Team Maura, or Team make-them-stop-fighting. I have my ideas, but I like to hear what readers think.**

**I'm currently in the midst of an end of semester crunch. Please show me some review love so that I can get through this rough week or so of school :) Thanks!**


	14. Distractions

**A/N-So, I'm sorry that this update is a bit late. Finals week does the strange thing where you have no idea what time or day it is, only that you have to somehow make it out. I also went through a rough patch that included cranky roommates and a computer reimage (i.e.-memory wipe) courtesy of a virus my friend got me when he used my comp to go on some sketchy site. Yeah, I'm going to blame my lateness on that perfect storm of suck things.**

**I put the rights to R&I on my Christmas list, but somehow I think that might some wishful thinking. So, yeah, still don't own...**

Maura stood in the same spot in the bathroom for longer than was at all necessary or appropriate. She had found that her hands were shaking and there was a part of her that really wanted to cry. Maura hadn't wanted to say those things, she had never meant to hurt Jane, but it had all just come tumbling out. She just said the first thing that came to mind, and only realized when it was too late how hurtful they might sound. This was what happened when Maura spoke without censor; she alienated people. But she had never alienated Jane and hadn't imagined she ever would.

This situation, the exact one that Maura found herself in, it was the very reason she had been so hesitant to pursue a romance with Jane. They were so close, had this incredible bond where they could talk about anything and still enjoy each other's company.

Maura's occasional bouts of social awkwardness were met with mild amusement rather than judgmental or wary stares when she was with Jane. She could have asked Jane how to read this predicament and the detective would have explained what she ought to do as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

But she obviously could not ask Jane because Jane had just stormed off and was probably getting into a cab as Maura stood dumbly in the bathroom.

The bathroom door swung open and a pleasant looking older woman entered. The woman smiled kindly and proceeded to the nearest stall. Maura refocused her attention and turned to face the mirror to make sure she was not showing that she may or may not have shed a tear before stopping herself. She looked perfectly fine, not a hair out place either. Maura took a steadying breath and returned to the table.

Jimmy smiled at Maura as she sat down at her place.

"You were gone for a while," he said as he polished off the last of his meal. "Detective Rizzoli left about five minutes ago, said something about a call."

Maura just bit her lip and nodded. She looked down at her meal as she contemplated taking a bite before deciding against it. She wasn't hungry and it was probably cooled off anyway.

"Was everything alright with her?" Jimmy asked. "She left in a pretty big rush."

"She thought that this was intended to be a date," Maura said, laughing a bit at the end to prove how ridiculous the idea actually was. "I tried telling her that it was simply a meal between friends, but she wouldn't believe me."

Jimmy did not say anything. He blushed furiously, and looked down at his plate then back up at Maura.

"If I am going to be perfectly honest," Doctor Palmer said as he fiddled with the corner of his napkin. "I may have had certain hopes that perhaps you would be open to pursuing a romantic relationship again."

"Really?" Maura asked.

"Yes," Jimmy said. "I realize that you can't do that at the moment though."

"You do?" Maura asked.

Her uncharacteristically short answers were caused as much by her distraction over the argument as they were by the fact that Jimmy thought that they could ever work out together. Though she didn't laugh, the idea was laughable; they had such poor romantic chemistry that Maura suspected at the time that he might be gay. Maura had written off the apparent flirtations during dinner as his own social awkwardness because taking Jimmy as a romantic partner had never even crossed Maura's mind.

"You forget that I have nearly enough credits to be a psychologist, Maura," Jimmy said, then added simply, "there's someone else, I can tell."

"What do you, how do you," Maura stammered

"It's all about expectations. You did not expect, nor were you seeking advances from anyone, because you are not single. Especially the way that your mind operates, you would need to be looking for a potential partner to pick up on my poor attempts at flirtation," Doctor Palmer said as he smiled to himself and adjusted his glasses. "Let me just say that she is a lucky lady."

"You said 'she' though. How do you know it's a woman that I'm, that I'm attracted to?" Maura asked. Jimmy had always had a knack for psychology, but even that guess had caught Maura off guard.

"Like I said, it's about expectations," Jimmy said as he leaned forward and put his elbows on the table. "Most people see what they expect to see. Every time I looked at you or touched you, Detective Rizzoli visibly tensed, and I'm pretty sure she gave me a dirty look or two. She expected to see me flirting with you, she was looking for it, and she saw it every single time. I was a bit confused about her reaction to me, but it all makes sense now."

"Oh, God," Maura said as the realization of what Jimmy had just told her began to set in.

If it was possible, Maura felt even worse than she had in the bathroom after Jane left. Not only had she said hurtful things to Jane, but she had put Jane in the horrible, helpless position of watching another person flirt with her, her…what was Maura to Jane?

She certainly felt as though they were dating, right down to the movie nights, but Maura was very wary of trusting anything she felt at the moment because her misguided feeling about Jimmy's intentions had put her in her current position in the first place. Then Jane had called Maura her girlfriend and taken it back in the same minute, so it was hard for Maura to know exactly how she might identify the relationship.

"Are you alright, Maura?" Jimmy asked, putting a hand gently on her shoulder. Given their current conversation, Maura could be fairly certain that it was not a romantic advance.

Maura looked up from her hands, which had been covering her face as any number of thoughts raced through her head.

"No, I'm not," Maura said. She resisted a sudden urge to burst into tears in the middle of the quiet French restaurant. "I really complicated things tonight."

"Well, I suspect that I might be partly to blame for that," Jimmy said, as he took out a wallet from his back pocket. "So this will be my treat."

Maura was too lost in thought to protest when he took out a few bills and put them on the table. She wanted to fix this whole mess with Jane, even make it go back to when they were just friends if it meant that she could have Jane in her life.

"How do I fix it?" Maura asked herself as much as she asked Jimmy.

Jimmy shrugged and sat back thoughtfully.

"I don't know your relationship dynamic, but perhaps you ought to have an honest conversation with her," he said.

"Yes, talk to her, that would be the most logical thing," Maura said.

It certainly made sense in theory, but Maura did not know where to even start. She would have to plan this next encounter out so that it wouldn't end quite as disasterously as the one in the bathroom.

"Would you like to go home now?" Jimmy asked. He was obviously concerned that Maura was exhibiting an uncharacteristic lack of focus and wordiness.

"I think that would be for the best," Maura said. It wasn't fair to Jimmy that she sit there listlessly and continue to pine over Jane, especially since he had admitted to a misguided crush on Maura. "Thank you for dinner though. I'm sorry that it did not go as you had hoped."

"Don't worry," Jimmy said as he rose from his seat and began to put on his jacket. "It was probably ill advised given our past dating history, but I wanted to give it one more try."

"Thank you regardless," Maura said offering Jimmy a small smile. "You are a wonderful friend."

"Ahh, the dreaded f word," he said, putting a hand over his chest in mock sorrow. He gave Maura a friendly hug and added before turning to leave. "That will have to do. Clearly your heart belongs to another."

Jimmy smiled at her one more time, with only a small hint of disappointment in his eyes. He lingered for a moment, waved and was on his way. Yet Maura hardly registered what was going on because she had been so caught off guard by his last statement. She was even able to overlook the fact that it was a rather inaccurate figure of speech for someone who had not had a heart transplant.

The whole drive home, it echoed through Maura's head. _Your heart belongs to another_.

* * *

Jane entered her dark, empty apartment and slammed the door. She flicked the lights on and threw her phone at the soft pillows of the sofa. Even if she was pissed and frustarated beyond belief, Jane had learnt the hard way that throwing it anywhere else would likely damage the phone beyond repair and only succeed in pissing her off even more.

Jane began to pace around her living room for no other reason than to burn off the tension and energy that had built to an almost unbearable level on the long cab ride home. Goddamn Doctor Palmer had to go and ruin everything, and Maura was so naïve and goddamn oblivious sometimes that she had no friggin' clue what he was up too.

"Shit!" Jane said to no one in particular when she realized that the pacing wasn't working.

"Hey, you ok?"

Jane had her back to the door and she was so preoccupied that she apparently hadn't heard her visitor enter.

She instinctively started to reach for her gun and spun around to see her brother standing in the doorway.

"What the hell are you doing here, Frankie?" Jane snapped. "How'd you even get in?"

"Ma gave me a copy of your key," Frankie said, taking it upon himself to enter the apartment as he dangled the keys between his fingers.

"Of course she did," Jane said as she sat down on the sofa to take off her shoes. She was in no mood for any company, so the fact that her entire family could now visit unannounced pissed her off even more than she already was. "Why are you here?"

"Nice to see you too," Frankie said, making himself comfortable in one of Jane's plush chairs. "I saw your car still in the lot at the station and Frost said you clocked out a few hours ago. You didn't answer your cell so I'm just making sure you didn't get kidnapped or something."

"Well, here I am, good as new," Jane said as she slouched back on the sofa.

"You seem like you're in kind of a bad mood though. I mean even for you," Frankie ventured tentatively. Jane almost took pity on him and cut him some slack. Almost.

"Gee, really? With that kind of observation, you'll make detective in no time," Jane said.

"Hey, hey, just trying to help. Something's obviously up, just thought I'd see if you wanted to talk," Frankie said.

"Well, I don't," Jane said. She had never been the talking type, always more of the doing type. So it was kind of a given that Jane did not particularly feel like talking to her brother about her relationship with Maura, even if it was something of an open secret around the station. "We can watch an episode of _Cops_ though."

Even though Jane had initially been resistant to the idea of having any living being that wasn't Jo Friday within a fifty foot radius of her, she kind of liked that her brother was with her now. Maybe it would provide the distraction that she needed at the moment. Jane also knew that Frankie, for as much as he could be a pain in the ass, would not push her to talk about something she didn't feel like talking about.

"I'll get the beers," Frankie said, as he got up from his chair and started towards the kitchen.

"You better pay me for that," Jane said as she took the beer that Frankie handed her an open bottle. "That's expensive shit."

"Yeah, whatever," Frankie said.

Jane flipped through the channels until she found her favorite station, the one that ran regular marathons of Cops. Luckily, they were right in the middle of a "Best of" countdown. They watched the beginning of the episode without much talking, just taking a sip of beer every once in a while. Then the commercials came on and Frankie apparently felt the need to talk.

"So, where's Maura tonight?" he asked. "Usually you guys, um, you know, hang out a lot."

Jane shrugged and took a long swig of her beer. What did he not get about her not wanting to talk?

"No clue," she said when he continued looking at her, waiting for her answer. "Dinner, I think."

Frankie raised his eyebrows and looked at Jane as if he were deciding whether or not to say something. He decided against it and sat back in his seat to take another sip of beer.

"So what do you think about the Sox signing Crawford?" He asked after a moment passed.

So he did get it. Or at least he got the message that Jane was not in the mood to talk about Maura and wasn't willing to push it and risk a good, hard punch in the arm. Jane gladly welcomed the change of subject and they continued the evening in easy banter and good natured arguments about whether or not the Sox had the bats to beat the Yankees and Shaq's free throw shooting.

When the marathon ended around midnight, Frankie decided it would be best for him to head back to his apartment, since he had an early shift in the morning. After he left, Jane watched TV for a few more minutes before deciding that she was tired enough to go to bed too.

When she was about to set her alarm for the morning, Jane's phone rang and she answered it so quickly that she hadn't even looked at the caller ID. As it turned out it was some drunk girl off looking for some guy named Sam. When Jane hung up, her recent calls list popped up. For some reason she could not fully understand, Jane scrolled down a few names until she came to Maura's number.

Jane froze, her thumb hovering over the call button. She was a second away from hitting it, but she snapped the phone closed instead. Jane was still kind of hurting from what had happened at the restaurant and did not want to risk saying something she'd regret. She also didn't want to risk calling and finding out that Maura wanted to cut things off completely. If she wanted that, Maura would have to initiate the conversation and do it in person. Jane wouldn't make it this easy and she definitely would not run the risk of opening herself up so easily.

She finished setting her alarm, put it by her bedside and turned off the light. As emotionally and physically drained as she was, Jane lay awake for the next two hours. When she did fall asleep, Jane tossed and turned the entire night.

* * *

All her life, Maura had believed with a degree of certainty that nothing could be more distracting than disorder in one's environment. Whether it be something small like a wrinkle in the back of her dress that she couldn't quite get out or papers filed out of order, Maura always felt that disorder tended to create distractions.

She was wrong about disorder being the single most distracting thing in life. Every single piece of paper that had come out of the Medical Examiner's office in the past five years was filed neatly away, and her dress was not composed of the type of material that even could wrinkle. Yet she found herself more distracted than she had been in recent memory.

Maura understood herself enough to know that her distraction stemmed from the argument with Jane. She just did not want to believe it, that the thought of Jane being angry at her had that kind of effect on Maura, so she tried, futiley up to this point, to bury herself in work.

Maura sighed and peered through her microscope at a tissue sample she had been trying to analysze for the past half hour. She squinted at the image, made a few notes and looked back. Maura was so intent on putting every last bit of attention that she had on the task at hand that she did not hear anyone enter the room.

"Hey, Maura," Jane said walking quickly towards the desk. "You have the autopsy report for the Perini case?"

Well, if anything, Jane had an excellent poker face. She excelled at acting as if they had never been anything more than work colleagues, and seemed as focused as ever on her work. The only small difference Maura could discern was Jane's lack of eye contact. Jane had always been one to make a lot of eye contact with everyone, she'd said once that it makes you look more honest and trustworthy. Now though, Jane's eyes were fixed on something just to the left of Maura's head.

"I'm still working on the tissue samples," Maura said. "I can send them up when they're ready. It will be ready within the hour."

"M'kay, good," Jane said. She turned quickly to leave, so quickly that she was almost out the door by the time Maura got up the courage to speak.

"Can we talk?" Maura asked. She spoke so softly that she wasn't sure Jane would hear her.

Maura knew that she had heard though, because Jane paused in the doorway, resting her hand on the door frame. She bit her lip and hesitated. Jane obviously struggled with two contradictory impulses, that much was clear from the subtle shift in body weight from one foot to the other.

"Um," Jane said. She took her hand off the doorway to run her hand through her hair and gave what Maura understood to be one of those superficial apologetic smiles. "I actually have like three cases open and brass is up my ass about getting in some overdue incident reports or something."

"Oh, yes, alright, of course," Maura said, trying not to sound too disappointed. "That is very important work. I can wait."

"Yeah, I'm really sorry," Jane said. Jane had made every effort humanly possible to detach herself from the situation. Yet Maura sensed that she really meant that apology, perhaps as less of an apology for being too busy to talk and more for their argument the previous night. After a second, the vulnerability disappeared again. "I should really go now."

"Good luck on your work," Maura said.

"Yeah, thanks," Jane said. She turned to leave, but not with the same quick, purposeful stride as she had entered the room.

After Jane disappeared from view, Maura turned back to her microscope. Now she could say with absolute certainty that Jane was the source of her distraction, and that kind of distraction was the most persistent kind of distraction that she had ever experienced.

**A/N-Not too much Maura/Jane interaction here and I must say that it pained me to do that, because I think thier interact is what make R&I so fun. It just would not have made sense though for them to get back to thier old ways just yet. Anyone reconsidering thier team choice after this chapter? Not suggesting you should or shouldn't, I'm just curious. :)**

**I got an insane number of reviews for the last chapter and I just thought I'd say how awesome it was to get each and every one of them. I replied to all the ones that would allow me to. To those who review anonymously or on accounts that have PM disabled, I love you guys just as much. It is so putting me in the christmas spirit right now :) I'm actually tempted to write an Xmas rizzles fic. Enough reviews requesting said fic, and I just might find the motivation to do it :) Even if holiday fic don't float your boat, please review anyway. I'll get all grinchy if you don't, and we can't have that! :)**


	15. Moping

**A/N-This one isn't quite as long as the more recent chapters, but I did post an xmas fic a few days ago, so if you add it up, I'm actually posting twice what I usually do in a week. Enough with the rationalizing and on to the real reason we're here...**

**If Jane and Maura were mine, well, we'll just say R&I would be a lot less about crime and a lot more about Jane and Maura banter. We'd also see a lot more undercover missions that require Maura cleavage and Jane lezzing it up...**

A part of Jane really, really wished she could slam her head into the desk repeatedly without being sent to the department shrink. She doubted whether it would relieve any of her stress or moodiness, but she also doubted if it would make things much worse.

Maura had just given Jane a golden opportunity, an opening to make things right and Jane blew it, she really blew it. True, she did have a lot of work, but that had never stopped her before; Jane could have done the work down in the morgue or stayed a little later if need be.

Instead, she had decided to avoid the whole thing. Jane needed to focus on work or she would go crazy thinking about Maura and wondering if Maura wanted to end things, wondering if that was why she hadn't called that night.

Then Maura had tried. It was only one effort, but Jane knew how difficult it must have been for Maura to work up the courage to say something, anything, in a situation that was entirely out of her comfort zone. And Jane had shot her down.

Jane rested her head on her desk and groaned out loud.

"Everything alright?" Frost asked, looking up from doing some hacking-type thing. Or at least it looked to Jane like the kind of typing that Frost did when he was hacking.

"Yeah, I'm wonderful, and you?" Jane snapped as she looked up at her partner. Why did she do that? Why did Jane automatically push away anyone that tried to get too close? Is that what had happened with Maura in the morgue?

"I'd be doing better if I didn't have a partner who's been acting as if I ran over her dog," Frost said as he looked back to his computer. "Did you get that report from Maura yet?"

"Yeah, came up bout to two hours ago. Knock yourself out," Jane said as she tossed the folder onto Frost's desk. "Didn't have anything new."

"Didn't think it would," Frost mumbled as he flipped through the pages. Then he looked up at the clock on the wall. "It's about five, why don't you head out?"

"No, Frost, we have two open cases. I can't just go home and sit on my ass," Jane said.

"Listen, Jane. One is a Jane Doe, and the DNA won't be back for another few days. And on this guy, well, the Feds aren't going to let us get too much done until we clear it through the Boston director. Until then, I don't need you moping around here," Frost said.

"Moping? I am not moping," Jane said indignantly. When Frost just raised his eye brows, she added, as much to convince herself as Frost. "I am not moping!"

"Whatever you want to call it, you've been in a horrible mood all day, and you look exhausted," Frost said. He looked somehow more concerned than frustrated by Jane's mood. "Go home. Get some rest. The victims and I will be here in the morning."

Jane exhaled. She considered putting up a fight, but decided against it. She could do some work from home if she really wanted to.

"Fine," Jane said, as she took her coat off the back of her chair and put it on. "Promise you'll call if anything comes up though?"

"Scout's honor," Frost said, putting up his hand to wave goodbye as he combed through the report more carefully.

Jane rolled her eyes. For some reason, she had always hated that saying and the guys knew it, so they often said it to tease her.

When Jane reached the parking lot, she got into her car, slammed the door, and drove off. She decided that going straight home would probably land her in terrible traffic. With Jane's current mood, she was afraid that such a situation might lead her to commit any number of violent felonies, so she decided to take the long way and visit her mother on the way home. Jane's father was at a convention in Philadelphia, so her mom would probably appreciate the company.

As it turned out, Angela was more than happy to have her baby girl visit. She gave Jane what could only be described as the kind of hug that squeezes all the air out of your lungs.

"Oh, Janie, I was hoping you would stop by," Angela said as she pulled Jane into the house. "Frankie usually comes around, but now they have them working these crazy hours. Can't you do something about that? You know, get your brother a better shift?"

"I'm a detective, not the commissioner," Jane said as she sat on the sofa, looking up at her mother, who had her arms folded over her chest. "He's just got to pay his dues."

"I'm just sayin,' you know, it's worth a try," Angela said.

"He's a big boy, ma," Jane said, pressing the palms of her hands up against her eyes. Maybe coming here had been a bad idea, especially since Jane wasn't exactly in a social mood.

Angela sat down on the sofa next to Jane and took a long hard look at Jane. She could tell something was wrong. Angela could always tell, but she asked anyway.

"You ok, Janie?" she asked, putting a hand on Jane's shoulder to get her attention. "Hey, you can talk to me. You know that, right?"

Jane swallowed hard and just nodded. It was all she could do to keep from breaking down right then and there. She hadn't slept in days, the captain was riding her ass about doing paperwork while she already had two open cases, and both cases involved a lot of political crap getting in the way. Then, of course, there was the biggest factor, the one causing those sleepless nights and lack of productivity: Maura.

"I just, I think I might have messed up," Jane said, looking down at her hands as she rubbed them together. "I mean not just me. I think we might have messed it up. The both of us, we made it so damn complicated."

"Oh, is this about a man?" Angela asked knowingly. Although her mother seemed genuinely concerned, Jane also suspected that her mother was a tiny bit pleased at the prospect that Jane might actually have a significant other to argue with.

"No, it's not a man," Jane said. She hesitated a moment. Jane had dated a few girls that her mother knew about, but they rarely talked about it. "It's, it's Maura, ma. I'm seeing, I was seeing, might be seeing her."

There was a split second pause, which Jane felt went on for much longer than it did. Yeah, this was probably not the right place to come for advice on wooing your lesbian lover, but Jane really had not thought this particular visit through. Now she was way too deep though, so she was just going to have to deal with her mother for the moment.

"Damn it, I should have known," Angela said, taking a cell phone out of her pocket. She squinted at the phone and began to slowly type out a text. "Now I owe your brother five bucks. He told me about you two ages ago."

Jane stared at her mother for a moment. Of all the possible reaction Jane had envisioned, this was way down on the bottom of the list. Actually, Jane thought, it hadn't even been on the list. She snatched the phone away from her mother and snapped it shut.

"You two are betting on my love life?" Jane asked as she deleted the text. "And since when do you text? And, by the way, we have not been dating for ages! Everyone says we have, but we haven't! I swear to God one more joke about being the department's token gay _and_ the token woman and they're going to be investigating me for a friggin' quadruple homicide. Jesus Christ!"

"Are you done?" Angela asked patiently.

Jane exhaled through her nose and looked around. She realized that she was standing with no recollection of ever getting up. She sat back down on the couch and handed Angela the cellphone.

"Yeah, for now," Jane said. She still felt a little put out that her love life had become a betting game among her friends and family, but felt much less murderous after letting herself rant for a bit.

"I just want for you to be happy, Janie," Angela said as she held Jane's hand. She tucked a strand of hair behind Jane's ear and rubbed her back. "And I know she makes you happy. You know, even before your brother mentioned anything romantic, I could tell she made you a happier person. You never smiled as much as when you're with her."

"That obvious, huh?" Jane said, rubbing the scar on her neck.

"You know what, you need to go fix it," Angela said. Jane knew that look. That was the look her mom got when she had settled on an idea and would not relent until her kids agreed to it, the same look she got the last time Jane had found herself dress shopping with Angela.

"Yeah, that thought did cross my mind once or twice," Jane said. "It's easier said than done though."

"Well, with that attitude, of course it's gonna be easier said than done," Angela said. "Since when do you give up so easily?"

"I'm not giving up, I'm just, I don't know," Jane protested. She knew her mother was right, and not just because her mother was right most of the time.

"You're sulking, that's what. Now, get up," Angela said as she rose from her spot on the sofa and pulled Jane's arm. "You'll go fix it because I will not have you moping here."

Jane got up in part because it was more comfortable than sitting while her mom held her arm and in part because she had been emboldened by Angela's speech. She still had no clue what she was going to do, but damn it, Jane had to do something. That was what Jane did, she did something, anything.

"Alright, ma," Jane said. "I'll talk to her."

"That's a good girl," Angela said as she crossed the room to open the door. "And when you two make up, bring her by for some gnocchi, why don't you?"

Jane rolled her eyes and smiled at her mother. In any situation, Angela always managed to find a way to offer someone food.

"Bye, love you, ma," Jane said. She kissed her mother on the cheek and made her way back to the car.

As soon as she got back to her apartment Jane tried to come up with a plan to get Maura over to her place to talk, because she wanted this to be in person. She went with the first idea that popped into her head before she lost the courage. Jane took out her phone and dialed Maura's number. It only rang once before Maura answered.

"Hello, Jane," Maura said. The same 'hello Jane' as ever, not a hint of resentment or anger. That could be a good sign.

"Hi," Jane said. She began to pace back and forth. "Um, I need some help on the Perini case with your report. I just, I saw something. I'm not sure if it means anything or not. It's in one of your little diagram things."

"Is it about the wound to the brachiordialis? Because I thought there might be something there as well. The stab wound is at an interesting angle. Perhaps we could determine the height of the attacker if we can determine the angle of entry-

"No, you know what, I don't know the broccoli-something from my gluteus Maximus. You think you could just come by my place and take a quick look?"

Jane could read Maura so well that she knew that the pause in conversation was more likely Maura smiling at Jane's mispronunciation than Maura's unwillingness to accept the conversation, but a part of her still hoped desperately that Maura would take the bait.

"Oh, yes, of course," Maura said. "I just locked the morgue up. I'll be there shortly."

"Great," Jane said. "See you then."

Jane hung up the phone and sat on the couch. She wondered if Maura understood the real reason for Jane's call. Maura was oblivious sometimes, but she seemed all too eager to come over. She could have looked at her original copy of the report, but instead she had agreed to come over with minimal hesitation. That was the one thing about Maura that both drove Jane crazy and made her want to be around the doctor more; you could never tell quite what she was going to do or say next.

Jane got up from the couch and went over to her refrigerator. She got a beer out for herself and cracked it open. Jane took a long swing then put it down on the counter. She pressed her palms against the surface of the counter and rocked back on her heels.

Jane took another swig of her beer, then decided to do something useful. She went to the top shelf of the cabinet over the stove and took down one of Maura's wine glasses. She found the half empty bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon behind the milk in the fridge and poured a glass for when Maura arrived.

Now with the waiting. Depending on traffic it could take Maura anywhere from ten minutes to an hour. Jane hated waiting; she could not stand that it was one of the few things over which she had absolutely no control. That was what Jane would have to do now. She would wait.

* * *

So now Jane wanted to see Maura, now Jane wanted to talk, but not about them. It was about a case, always about a case. No, Jane was going to attempt to ignore the very obvious tension between them. Well, Maura figured the tension must be obvious if even she could sense it without analyzing the situation at hand.

And now Maura had worked herself into a state of distress. All these thoughts about how poorly she had handled the conversation at the restaurant and her weak attempt at an apology coupled with her frustration at Jane's apparently blasé attitude put Maura in a rare, irrationally irritable mood.

She tried calming herself with some meditation techniques, but one could only do so much of that while trying to drive in Boston traffic.

Maura replayed the conversation in her head for clues about what Jane wanted. Though she had said it was about the Perini case, Maura wasn't so sure. It could very well be about that because there was an interesting wound on the man's left arm. But she also had to consider that this was out of the ordinary if Jane was trying for a strictly working relationship. None of the other detectives had ever asked her to come by their home for a consultation.

Of course, it could be force of habit on Jane's part to ask that of Maura. Studies had shown that deeply ingrained habits were very difficult to break. That was probably the very reason that Maura had agreed so readily to drive through potentially horrific traffic to see Jane. That or the fact that she really, really missed Jane's presence in her lab since the argument.

Maura gripped the steering wheel and focused on the road in front of her. She focused on her breathing to slow down her thoughts and it worked to a certain extent. Maura could think clearly or at least more clearly that she had been a few moments before.

She would need to broach the topic of their relationship. That's all there was to it. Jane obviously had no intention of addressing the issue any time soon, and Maura needed answers. More than answers, Maura needed to apologize, apologize for being wrong and cruel and just so obtuse about Palmer. Answers would come with the apology, Maura suspected. First and foremost, she needed to have Jane's forgiveness and friendship back even if that's all they could ever manage.

Maura decided to bring up the issue subtly, perhaps even work it into another conversation if the opportunity presented itself. Jane would likely resort to her defense mechanism, or 'put up a wall' to use a common colloquialism if Maura addressed the issue too aggressively. Jane did not like to feel out of control, even with something as minor as a conversation. Maura suspected it had something to do with Jane's experience with Hoyt, but she had never suggested that to Jane or anyone else.

Maura found a parking space on the street a few spaces from Jane's front door. Maura gathered herself. When she got out of the car, Maura felt entirely composed and prepared. She had carefully outlined in her head what she needed to say to Jane and felt satisfied with her plan, though still could not shake the tension from her limbs.

Maura got into the building by walking in behind one of the other residents, a middle aged woman that lived down the hall from Jane. Maura nodded courteously at the woman and followed her up the stairs. She stood in front of Jane's apartment, took one more deep breath, and knocked on the door.

**A/N-A little suspense for you. Do you think you can handle it? If you're having Maura/Jane banter withdrawals, as I was while writing this chapter, then you can bounce on over to my super fluffy holiday fic. There's plenty of Rizzles sweetness to go around there :)**

**My oh my, I can't believe how long I've been writing this fic. It's been an entire semester and a lot of you are still with me. That's fantastic, and I adore each and every review I get. I've decided that if I make it to 400 reviews, I'll write a oneshot for lucky number 400 with any pairing and genre in any fandom listed on my profile. Yup, I'll even make myself write a Jane/Dean fluff piece if that's what _really_ floats your boat. So, get to reviewing, and have a happy holiday! Please leave me a little holiday treat :)**


	16. Maura's Outline

**A/N-Sorry this took so long to post. I wrote it differently than I usually go about these chapters, mostly because I got hopelessly stuck trying to write it the way that I normally do. Let me know how it works…**

**Oh, yeah, and there was no Christmas miracle that gave me the rights to R&I. I was so good this year too…**

When Jane opened the door, she had expected to see Maura, but she had not expected to meet with this particular version of Maura. The doctor actually seemed surprised to see Jane open the door. The sudden shift in Maura's demeanor might have been comical had Jane not been so nervous herself.

"Hey, come on in," Jane said stepping aside to let Maura into the apartment. "How was traffic?"

"It took about 25 minutes to get here. I would have to say that is about average for this time of day," Maura said, glancing at the table where Jane usually put her work stuff.

She obviously noticed that Jane did not have any of her case materials spread out, as she would if she had actually intended to get Maura's advice on the autopsy report. Jane moved towards the counter to get her beer bottle and Maura's glass of wine. She held it out to Maura.

"Here you go. Some of that wine from the other day," Jane said, smiling to try to ease the tension in the room. "How have you been?"

This was probably one of the most strained, awkward encounters that she had ever had with Maura. That included their first meeting in which Jane's sarcasm had induced a Maura google moment that left them staring confusedly at each other.

Maura took a sizeable sip of wine before speaking. She appeared to be contemplating how she could best answer the question without lying and apparently decided to deflect by nodding noncommittally before she spoke.

"Thank you for the wine," Maura said. "How have you been?"

"Good, I've been alright," Jane said. God, with the small talk now. Jane hated small talk, especially when she knew it was being used to avoid the enormous elephant in the room. She decided to try to move towards a conversation with Maura about what had happened at the restaurant. "How is um, how's Palmer been?"

"I don't know. We haven't spoken since that dinner," Maura said. She took a un-Mauralike gulp of wine, put the glass down, then added in the same conversational tone. "I never had intercourse with Doctor Palmer."

Jane's eyes widened and she did not say anything for a moment. That was one thing that Jane had not been expecting would come out of her mouth at all. People were developing a bad habit of doing that lately. Jane was not sure she particularly enjoyed being caught off guard when she was normally ready and waiting with a retort.

Once she got over the shock of Maura's admission, Jane supposed she ought to be happy that all those images flooding her brain hadn't been true, and a part of her was glad for that. Another, bigger part of her was upset though. She felt upset that Maura had somehow mislead her, apparently for the purpose of making Jane jealous or upset. It was so not in Maura's nature to do something like that, or so Jane had thought.

"You mean you lied to me then," Jane said. She tried to make her face as blank as possible until she could figure out exactly what she did feel. "I thought you couldn't lie."

"I didn't. I can't," Maura said. She squinted at Jane, probably trying to get a read on Jane's feelings, but gave up and looked down at her hands. " I never said that I had intercourse with him."

"You certainly very strongly implied it," Jane said. Maura and her friggin symantics and her honest belief that those kinds of details mattered, that somehow only the actual words mattered. She just didn't get it. Jane needed to make her get it this time.

"Let's look at the facts," Jane said, folding her arms over her chest. "You told me that he has a small dick. That implies that you've seen him naked. Given the fact that you had told me not a minute before that you dated, it kind of makes sense to assume that you screwed him."

* * *

This conversation was not going well, not at all. Maura had somehow managed to get Jane even angrier than before her attempt at an apology. No, it was not anger Maura detected in Jane's facial muscles. Well it was partially anger, but she looked more hurt than anything else.

Maura needed to fix that. She needed to make Jane understand that she had never intended to cause any pain, explain how and why she had ended up saying those foolish, hurtful things.

"No, I walked in on him while he was changing once and he had forgotten to lock the door," Maura said.

She tried to smile apologetically at Jane, but Jane avoided direct eye contact and instead looked at some spot just to the left of Maura's ear. Jane's arms were still folded protectively over her chest. So that explanation had done absolutely nothing. Maura would have to continue on.

"I told you in the bathroom because it was my misguided attempt to comfort you by providing reassurance that he could never satisfy me sexually," Maura said. Still no reaction outside of a sigh from Jane.

Maura knew that she was not a master at navigating social situation or complicated relationships like this one. She also knew that her handling of this situation was coming up just short of disastrous. Yet she felt Jane had to start giving a little bit, had to say something, do something to help things along instead of just standing there looking impassively at Maura fumble for the right answer.

"You see this is why one can't make assumptions without listening carefully and gathering all the evidence," Maura said, trying to sound as reasonable as possible. That defense did, after all, make sense, even though it put Jane in a worse mood if Jane's reaction was any indication.

"Really Maura? That's really that's the defense you're going for?" Jane snapped. "Well, you would make one hell of a defense attorney."

"No, you know what," Maura said. The more she thought it through, the more Maura realized that it was very poor timing to be bringing up that particular point. It sounded more like blame than the reasonable statement that she had meant for it to be. "It sounded a lot better in my head."

"You think?" Jane said.

"Yes, I do," Maura said. She shook her head as if to clear it and decided to try another tactic. "You have to understand that the way I feel when I'm around you, it's different than anything else I've experienced. When I first noticed the attraction, I actually mistook it for a rare brain disorder. That is how unaccustomed and ill-equipped I was for this, this thing."

"Brain disorder?" Jane repeated incredulously. Maura thought she detected a hint of amusement laced in with Jane's frustration. "You thought that you must have a brain disorder to be attracted to me?"

"To be fair, I thought that you might have one as well," Maura pointed out. "It has nothing to do with any lack of sex appeal on your part. I simply mistook our symptoms of arousal for symptoms of, well, a fatal disorder."

Jane appeared to be having a rare speechless moment, as all she could do was blink at Maura. Maura couldn't glean even the slightest bit of information from Jane's posture. Perhaps she was still angry or puzzled or frustrated, or even amused at Maura's misinterpretation. Any number of reactions would have been appropriate, but it appeared that Jane could not settle on any one emotion.

Maura couldn't take it anymore. She considered herself a very patient, methodical person by nature, but she, to use a common figure of speech, had dug herself into a deep ditch. Maura just needed to get it all out, everything in her methodical plan just needed to get out there in the open before she muddled things so badly that Jane refused to speak to her.

"I'm just, I had this thing all planned out, an outline, if you will, of points that I needed to address with you, but that has clearly been a massive failure thus far, so I'll just skip ahead and say I'm sorry. I'm sorry I said those things and put you through that dinner. I had no idea, no idea that he meant for that to be anything more than dinner. I know that's no excuse, but those are the facts for better or worse—

"Maura—

Maura had noticed Jane's features start to soften, imperceptibly at first. Then she had dropped her arms to her side and continued to listen. Maura probably could have safely paused for a moment to allow Jane some time to respond, but Maura needed to continue on. Now that she had developed a momentum, the doctor had to follow through before she lost her courage.

"No, Jane, no, I need to finish, let me finish first," Maura said. She took a deep breath and when she spoke again, it was in a more even, thoughtful voice instead of rushed and bumbling. Maura had gained a bit of confidence as she saw the worst of Jane's hostility slip away.

"I want us to be us again, whatever that is," she said, wrinkling her brow as she carefully picked her next words. "I want to see you for more than just autopsy delivery and progress meetings. If that means that we can only ever be friends, then I think I can handle that, but I need you Jane. I can't not have your companionship. I missed you so much when you weren't around, and I felt a need, a physical need for you."

Maura stopped talking and looked directly at Jane as she waited for a response. There it was. Even if she had been a bit disorganized, all of Maura's points were clearly out there. Maura usually liked that type of clarity and explicitness, but now she felt only uneasiness as she waited for Jane to respond.

It was not what she had expected. Jane looked almost, well, sad was the only way to put it.

* * *

Jane turned her head and looked down as she pinched the bridge of her nose so that Maura couldn't see her expression clearly. It was an almost instinctual habit Jane had developed to protect herself when she felt particularly vulnerable or as if she might be hurt by what was coming next. There was a 'but' coming up, Jane could feel it. Maura would find some unforeseen complication, and insist that they return to their 'work friend' relationship.

"Jane, no, please just look at me for a minute," Maura said, putting a hand on Jane's shoulder until Jane finally looked her in the eye. Maura smiled that sincere, tender smile that Jane could not get enough of, whether in the morgue or sitting on a park bench.

" I don't even like being around people," Maura said. "Not in a misanthropic way, more in a 'they make me anxious' way. You, though, for all of your sarcasm and hard ass cop act, as you like to call it, you don't make me nervous, and I can't figure it out."

Jane felt a little bit safer with Maura's reassuring touch and smile, so she kept eye contact as she spoke. Maura seemed to understand that Jane felt vulnerable and was trying to reassure her that there was no catch, that she wasn't going to do or say something hurtful.

"What do you feel then?" Jane asked. Damn, there her eyes went again, always drifting down to Maura's lips. She just could not help herself apparently, even when they were in the midst of a disagreement.

"I,I don't know with certainty," Maura said, biting her lip and looking around before looking back at Jane. "I just, I know that I feel this overwhelming need for you. To see you, to touch you."

"I think they might call that lust," Jane said, in part because she had no idea what to do with Maura's admission and the meaningful look that Maura was now giving Jane.

"You know that is not what I meant, Jane," Maura said. "Well, that's not all that I mean. Clearly there are elevated hormones and pheromones when we are together, but it's something else. I really enjoy being around you even when we're not doing anything sexual. I'm not certain that I understand why though."

Jane finally saw in Maura the vulnerability that she had been feeling the whole conversation. Hell, the vulnerability she'd been feeling the whole week that they had been avoiding the issue. Maura probably did know what those feelings meant, but she was obviously frightened by them or nervous that Jane did not feel as deeply as she did. That, of course, was absolute bullshit, but Jane had done very little talking so far, so Maura probably could not tell.

"I think I understand it perfectly," Jane said. She took Maura's face in her hands and kissed her slowly even though she wanted nothing more than to kiss her feverishly. This was the time for lingering kisses to show that Jane, whether she liked it or not, was in it for more than the sex. Although that was bound to be absolutely phenomenal as well if their kisses were any indication.

"You do?" Maura said, smiling brightly when Jane pulled away and smiled at her.

"Mhmm," Jane said. "It starts with an L and ends with an E."

Maura tilted her head to the side and squinted her eyes thoughtfully, probably running through the dictionary stored in that big brain of hers.

"Do you mean 'lame'? Jane, you must know that's not very nice," Maura said.

She appeared to say it all seriousness, and Maura never lied and rarely used sarcasm. Yet some part of Jane suspected that Maura knew exactly what she had meant because Maura did not seem truly offended. Jane laughed softly and took a step forward. She reached out and tucked a hair behind Maura's ear and traced a finger slowly down Maura's jawline before stopping on her lips.

"I'll try to be nicer next time," she said.

Maura appeared entirely too distracted by Jane's touch and the incredibly intense eye contact that they were making at the moment. Jane herself wondered how it was that she managed to speak so clearly.

"Jane?" Maura said. Her voice wavered ever so slightly as Jane caught Maura's eyes dart quickly down to her lips.

"Yeah, Maura," Jane said. She heard her own voice go even deeper than usual without having made any effort at all.

"May I kiss you now?" Maura asked.

Jane almost laughed at the question. Kissing was going to be pretty inevitable at this point in the conversation, but she resisted the urge to laugh. That would probably spoil the mood a little. Instead, she smiled and repeated what she remembered Maura saying on the might of their very first, very drunk kiss, and she remembered that part with a surprising clarity.

"I was under the impression that I already consented to that," Jane said, the trace of a confident smile still on her lips.

Maura smiled brightly, clearly recognizing her own words. The woman did, after all, have an almost encyclopedic memory; Jane knew that she would remember, even after a few weeks had passed.

Maura leaned in and kissed Jane. In that moment, Jane felt almost overwhelmed not just by the intensity of her emotions, but by relief. Mere hours ago, Jane had convinced herself that she and Maura had permanently and irrevocably messed up their relationship. Now she was standing in the middle of her apartment kissing, or rather, being kissed by Doctor Maura Isles and she was absolutely loving every second of it.

Yup, Jane thought, this was definitely one of the best mondays she had experienced in a very, _very_ long time.

* * *

**A/N-I was going to do some more tweaking on this chapter, but I figured you guys waited long enough for this reunion. It's only right that I not make you wait any longer. I have issues with this chapter, particularly the second half. I've done a ton of revising to fix that, but I'm still not in love with it. **

**We're getting towards the end of the fic. I'm considering having one final chapter to wrap things up and/or an M rated outtake from right after this chapter. What do you all think? I'm certainly open to suggestions. :o)**

**My 400****th**** reviewer reward still stands, but I'm adding a poll to my profile so that other reviewers can vote for their preference. That way the winner can make an informed decision when they decide what to have me write. :)**

**Another big thank you to everyone who has reviewed this little fic of mine. It's the longest finished story that I've written, and there were times that I would have given it up if I didn't have so many people telling me that they enjoyed it.**

**Help me start the New Year off right with some reviews!**


	17. Kissing Hands

**A/N-So I've had parts of this ready for awhile now, I just got stuck on how I wanted to end it. I settled on keeping it a T rated fic, but I push the T rating towards the end. Some people might call it M, but I don't think it's quite that explicit. I went as close as I could though...**

**Don't own 'em, but if I did, they would be doing less crime solving and more of the stuff in this chapter. :)**

When she went to kiss Jane, Maura felt a sudden, intense surge of emotions. The hormones mixed with the adrenaline from her argument with Jane left Maura entirely at the mercy of her emotions. Maura began to well up, and in spite of her best efforts to control it, she felt a tear of, well she couldn't quite place the emotion.

Relief, perhaps? That in spite of her less than spectacular apology, Jane had understood. Maybe it was happiness that she was now kissing Jane and Jane was kissing back and it all felt as though it would be alright.

When Jane noticed Maura's tears, she pulled away and looked a little concerned.

"You alright?" Jane asked. She held Maura's face and wiped the tear away with her thumb. "Something wrong?"

"Oh, no, nothing of the sort," Maura said, smiling broadly to prove her point. "I'm just, I've been really emotional lately. The tears they're an expression of my heightened state of emotionality. Maybe it's a radical shift in hormone production or—

"Maybe," Jane said, smiling softly and pulling Maura closer so that their bodies touched. "You're just so overwhelmed with joy at the fact that you just landed the best looking member of Boston Homicide."

Maura laughed at that bit of Jane's sarcasm. Jane must have noticed her embarrassment and steered away from it with a little humor.

"That is quite true," Maura said. "Of course, you have very little competition. Now that I think about it though, I suppose if you liked older men, one could do worse than Detective Korsak."

Jane rolled her eyes.

"Eww, ok, ok, sorry I went there," Jane said, though Maura noticed no signs of aggravation or frustration. It was more amusement than anything else.

There was a moment of comfortable silence.

"Do you think it would be alright if we sat down," Maura said. "This day has been quite tiring."

"Yeah, sure," Jane said.

She led the way the sofa, where Jane sat on her usual end and Maura sat next to her resting her head on Jane's shoulder. They cuddled comfortably together, talking about all the same things that they usually talked about, the same joking and flirting that Maura so enjoyed in their relationship, it all came back so effortlessly.

Then Maura realized something. For all the easy banter and sweet kisses and confessions, they still had not established the status of their relationship. They had not at all established where they were going from this point, and the root of their original disagreement, the definition of their relationship, still lingered. Maura decided to let that be for at least a little while. After all, her last attempt at something of that nature had fallen rather flat. She did not want to ruin the moment, so she settled on thinking incessantly about it.

Either Jane was a mind reader, which was scientifically improbable, she had noticed Maura's distraction, a much more probable prospect, or she too had the same concerns. Regardless, Jane surprised Maura when she addressed the issue seemingly out of the blue. So much so that Maura did not initially understand what she was getting at.

"At the restaurant when we were arguing," Jane said slowly. "About what I said then."

"What about what you said then?" Maura asked. Really, the specificity of Jane's speech could definitely be improved upon.

"When I called you my girlfriend then took it back," Jane said, looking down at her scarred hands. "Not one of my best moments."

"Did you mean it though?" Maura ventured when Jane did not say anything else. "When you called me your girlfriend?"

Jane looked at Maura for a moment. For a second, the doctor feared Jane would say no, she hadn't meant it. Then Jane smiled.

"Yeah, I did," Jane said, a blush rising into her cheeks before she continued. "I was just being too much of a wimp to do anything about it."

"Well," Maura said, running her hand along the exquisite bone structure of Jane's chin and jawline. "What if I could say with a satisfactory degree of scientific certainty that I would not at all object to that definition?"

Jane raised her eyebrows and grinned at Maura.

"If Doctor Maura Isles can say something and be that sure about it, I'd be pretty damn confident," Jane said.

"I can say that. As a matter of fact I will state right now, for the record, that I, Doctor Maura Isles, do concure with Detective Jane Rizzoli's characterization of our relationship as a monogamous romantic and sexual relationship," Maura said in her best official sounding voice, mostly for Jane's amusement.

"Do you, now?"

"Yes, I do," Maura said.

"Then I guess I should take you on a real date then," Jane said before pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Make an honest woman of you."

"But Jane," Maura said, squinting her eyes in confusion, "I'm always an honest woman."

"Yeah, you are," Jane said. "It's just a figure of speech, honey."

"Honey?" Maura said raising her eyebrows at Jane. "I'm not certain that I like that pet name."

"I think that it fits you perfectly," Jane said, making absolutely no effort to hide the fact that she was looking at Maura's cleavage. Maura couldn't blame Jane; her breasts were well proportioned and aesthetically pleasing if she said so herself.

"Mmm, you think?" Maura said.

Her adrenaline rush had worn off completely and in its place, Maura felt her attraction to Jane intensify noticeably, to the point that she could not stand the thought of not touching Jane.

"Yeah," Jane said as she ran a hand through Maura's hair. "So about that date, I can take you out tonight if you want."

"Or," Maura said, putting a hand on Jane's thigh and rubbing it slowly. "We could stay in and do other things that girlfriends do with each other."

Jane sighed and her eyes fluttered closed as Maura's hand inched up her leg. Yes, Maura had Jane exactly where she wanted her. Sure enough, a moment later, Jane had pinned Maura down on the sofa and kissed Maura with an intensity and desperation that she had not felt in their earlier kisses. It felt as if all of their pent up emotions, the ups and downs of the last few days and hours, they were all pouring out of Jane into that searing, impossibly intense kiss.

Maura Isles had never been entirely emotionless, but she always felt she was missing something in understanding emotions deep enough to completely override reason and logic. Then her attraction to Jane pushed her, gently nudged her towards, as Jane had once put it, letting her heart run that big brain of hers once in a while.

Now, as she kissed Jane and pulled off Jane's shirt then her own in quick succession, Maura realized that she had finally reached that point. She had all these feelings and Maura wasn't scared by their power over her anymore. She liked the surrender, mostly because it was with Jane; Maura knew Jane would never treat that surrender lightly.

"Oh, Jane," Maura whispered as Jane began kissing Maura's neck. There would probably be a small contusion there in the morning, but Maura didn't care. Maura felt Jane smile against her skin when she spoke.

"You like that?" Jane said, moving away and looking up just enough to see Maura's face.

Maura nodded enthusiastically and ran her hands down Jane's back towards Jane's underwear.

"What do you say," Jane said before planting another kiss on Maura's neck. "We take this to my bedroom?"

Maura could only moan in response as Jane found a particularly sensitive spot on her neck while her hand began to sneak up towards Maura's bra.

"Is that a yes?" Jane asked, this time without looking up.

"Most definitely," Maura said.

Jane sat up and ran her hands over Maura's stomach, grinning the whole time.

"You know, you're pretty amazing," Jane said, not in a tone of rushed passion, but with a hint of what Maura might call reverence.

"Thank you. You're quite wonderful yourself," Maura said. She was lying on her back on the sofa with her hands resting on Jane's hips. She sat up as best she could and kissed Jane again before managing to get out from under Jane. Maura walked slowly in the direction of the bedroom.

"Are you coming with me?"

Maura looked over her shoulder and saw that Jane still sat on the sofa admiring the doctor's nearly naked form.

"I'm quite aroused, Jane. I can finish the job on my own, but I feel it would be much more enjoyable if you joined in," Maura said, the corners of her lips turning up ever so slightly at Jane's reaction. The detective was up off the couch and across the room very quickly. If Maura were the guessing type, she would say it was record speed.

"We can't be having that, now can we?" Jane said. She grinned wickedly, took Maura's hand and opened her bedroom door.

* * *

When her bedroom door clicked shut, Jane felt a little bit unsure about what to do next. True, neither of them was a virgin or anything, but this was just, it was different somehow. It was Maura, and she wanted Maura to know that she was special, not just some quick fuck or something like that.

Jane sat on her bed and patted the spot next to her. Maura walked over and sat down, though not with the same sexy confidence as in the living room. There seemed to be a new calmness to Maura, a stillness that Jane rarely felt in herself.

Maura took the lead and kissed Jane. Usually Jane took control, but Maura had Jane on her back rather quickly. The doctor actually began to work quickly, her cool hands tracing up Jane's side and her leg pressed between Jane's legs.

The things that Maura was doing, the touches and the subtle movements against Jane's body left the detective sorely tempt to move things along quickly. She resisted and instead flipped Maura onto her back.

"There, that's better," Jane said.

"Maybe for you," Maura said, closing her eyes and smiling to herself as Jane massaged one of Maura's breasts through the fabric of her bra. "Or maybe for me too."

Jane grinned at Maura's reaction and bent down to kiss her one more time before sitting back up again. She hesitated for a split second before deciding what to do next. She slowly reached behind her and unclasped her bra. She took it off and tossed it to the side.

Jane wondered if Maura knew how rare it was that she would do something like that. That she would willingly be more naked, more vulnerable than her sex partner. To put it simply Jane had some trust and control issues, and this was her small way of acknowledging, even if just to herself, that she trusted Maura enough to be both physically and emotionally naked in front of her.

Maura reached up and ran her fingers over Jane's curves. They moved over Jane's skin, tracing the muscles with incredible precision until Maura got to Jane's pantie line. She began trying to pull the fabric off.

"Just a minute," Jane said, smiling at Maura to reassure.

"An entire minute, Jane?" Maura whined. Yes, Jane actually heard Maura whine about having to wait to undress her. This was turning out to be an awesome day.

"No, not an entire minute," Jane said. "I will take off my underwear on one condition."

"What might that be?" Maura asked.

"You have to get naked too," Jane said.

"That was part of my plan anyway," Maura said, lifting herself up on her elbows and reaching behind to unhook her bra. "So I think both parties will be very satisfied."

Maura did not stop there though. She shifted under Jane and began to wriggle her underwear off. Jane instinctively moved so that she could get the lacy piece off more quickly.

"Better?" Maura said.

Jane took off her own underwear and straddled Maura again. She ran her hands all over Maura's body, her soft, well cared for skin, and her firm stomach. Whoever said that you couldn't get in shape doing yoga had definitely been lying.

"Much, much, better," Jane said. She laid down on top of Maura so that their bodies pressed together, closer than they had ever been before. Jane sighed into the kiss.

Maura stopped kissing for a moment and gave Jane a look that the detective could not quite categorize. She did not at all seem conflicted about what they were doing; it was obvious from her reaction to Jane's naked body that she was an eager participant. Still, it seemed as though she was assessing something, formulating a way of expressing some sort of inexplicable insight.

"I can't explain it," Maura murmured more to herself than to Jane. The realization did not appear to bother the normally articulate doctor. She went right back to kissing Jane and letting her hands run all over Jane's body, as Jane's hands did the same.

Both women were already pretty well worked up, or aroused, as Maura might put it, so it did not take long for things to get truly intense. Jane was about to slip down to between Maura's legs when Maura pulled her back up.

"Stay here, I want to see you," Maura said. She took Jane's hands and looked at the carefully, then Maura did something that Jane had not expected. She kissed Jane's scars, so softly that her lips just brushed against the skin. "Use your hands. They're beautiful."

Jane was certain she would remember this encounter with Maura for a long time to come, but that moment, that particular moment would stick with her more than anything else. More than the fact that it was hands down the best sex she had ever had, Jane would remember how Maura had kissed her hands.

Even in the heat of the moment, with so much pent up passion coming to a head, Maura spoke and acted with such tenderness and sincerity. That was what Jane had needed, even if she would never let down her guard enough to admit it. She needed tenderness and softness, and Maura, for all of her social awkwardness, seemed to know Jane enough to understand that.

So, yes, Jane would always remember those soft kisses on her hands. That was, after all, the moment that Detective Jane Rizzoli realized that she had fallen in love with Doctor Maura Isles.

**A/N-Yeah, it's a little on the shorter side compared to some of my other chapters. I hope you enjoyed it anyway, I didn't want to make it longer solely to extend the word count.**

**This is probably the last chapter of this particluar fic, though not the last of my R&I fics. The winner of my reward fic is Gentry and she has requested a "T with a dash of M rated" fic (probably something like this chapter), from the Rizzoli and Isles fandom featuring your favorite pairing :) Though it was meant to be only a one shot, she gave me a good plot idea that might take a few chapters to finish. I've been working on that at the same time as this chapter, so I already have a good chunk of that done.**

**Thank you again everyone for reading and reviewing my humble little fic. I've probably said it before, but it bears repeating that I was truly motivated and inspired by all the positive feedback that I have recieved. With school starting back up, I have gotten really backed up on review responses, but please know that I read and appreciate every single one. Hope to see you all enjoying my future fics!**

**I'd really like to hear the opinions of anyone and everyone who has read any part of this fic. Please review!**


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